The name of the title is first to go / followed obediently by the title, the plot, / the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel / which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even heard of… —from “Forgetfulness” by Billy Collins Weeks from the official start of summer, my city has conveniently skipped what most would call spring. Times are strange: our winter jackets still hang near the door, just in case, and amid an unexpected burst of eighty and ninety-degree weather I heard someone say, “Valerie died twenty-one months ago…” Then they said it again. That someone it turns out was me, and I soon realized this instinctive, month-by-month measuring is not unlike how we track the growth of children before they reach age two. No one I know has ever introduced their toddler with a “she’s thirty months old,” nor would it be proper if I admitted that on May 12th, 2022, I celebrated my 555th month on this planet.
Little Engines of Connection
Little Engines of Connection
Little Engines of Connection
The name of the title is first to go / followed obediently by the title, the plot, / the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel / which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even heard of… —from “Forgetfulness” by Billy Collins Weeks from the official start of summer, my city has conveniently skipped what most would call spring. Times are strange: our winter jackets still hang near the door, just in case, and amid an unexpected burst of eighty and ninety-degree weather I heard someone say, “Valerie died twenty-one months ago…” Then they said it again. That someone it turns out was me, and I soon realized this instinctive, month-by-month measuring is not unlike how we track the growth of children before they reach age two. No one I know has ever introduced their toddler with a “she’s thirty months old,” nor would it be proper if I admitted that on May 12th, 2022, I celebrated my 555th month on this planet.