Shorter pieces

A standing table beats a special occasion, because a special occasion tests the friendship and a standing table builds it.

A carpenter runs his thumb down an edge on the inside of a drawer that will spend forty years in the dark.

Fear never shows up as fear. It shows up as arithmetic, and the arithmetic is never finished.

A goal that keeps receding is a failure. A quest that keeps receding is just a quest, behaving normally.

For a second at the table you can see the years ahead. Then somebody asks for the salt.

A grandmother teaching the rolls throws a rope across a gap she will not be on the far side of.

The dents had not changed. I had not changed. Only my attention had changed.

You cannot hold the steam. You can drink the coffee.

Denial and distraction look like opposites. They sell the same product, which is not looking.

The calendar feels like proof you matter. It is mostly proof you have stopped choosing.