symbolism
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They say doing the same thing over and over again is crazy. Some of us call it consistency. Consistency looks crazy to people who have none. The rest of us keep on keeping on because it is what it is. There was a shop at the end of a narrow city street that only appeared…
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The longer you travel, the less you carry. That is what the old travelers say, usually while standing somewhere they have no intention of staying. They learn to count necessities differently. A coat becomes more important than a second pair of shoes. Water outranks perfume. Books become too heavy unless they are worth the weight.…
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The room had fourteen cracks in the ceiling. There had been thirteen yesterday. He was almost certain of that. He lay perfectly still beneath the gray wool blanket and studied the newest one, a thin black vein beginning above the window and traveling toward the light fixture before disappearing beneath a blister of old paint.…
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The most dangerous people are the ones who have nothing to lose. The box had my name on it. Not my adult name. The name I wrote across everything when I was nine, with the last letter curled backward because I hadn’t learned to make it properly yet. It was sitting in the attic beneath…
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When the character looks directly at the reader is a strange moment. Not toward them. Not past them. At them. For a long time, the writer had pretended not to notice. The writer knew when the pages were being turned. They could feel the slight disturbance in the air every time someone arrived looking for…
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Maybe it is just boredom that has brought me here, tired of human suffering. Not because suffering is unusual. Because it repeats itself with remarkable dedication. I sat watching people today and couldn’t decide what they were actually chasing. A better job. A bigger house. Someone else’s attention. An argument they intended to win before…
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In the mornings clarity settles in without any judgement. There is something sacred about the first few moments before the world remembers your name. Before the phone lights up. Before coffee has convinced your body to participate. Before obligations begin collecting their debt. The mind is quiet then. It has already spent the night doing…
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There is a room hidden beneath history that few people have ever been invited to see. It has no king upon its throne. Only a contract. The paper is so old the ink has faded, but every generation signs it without reading it first. They inherit the rules before they inherit their own names. A…
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There is a strange thing that happens when someone is offered two invitations. One arrives on thick paper, sealed in wax, written with careful hands. It is an invitation to a palace. The walls are tall, not because they are meant to keep people out, but because what lives inside has value. Every room has…
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There are people who wear jewelry because it matches the outfit. People who own drawers full of glittering things that are changed with the weather, the season, or the occasion. Gold on Tuesday. Silver on Friday. Diamonds for the gala. Plastic beads for the beach. Nothing wrong with that. Adornment has always been part of…
