Things
In Which the Magpie Enters the Silence
A synthetic desert . . . a forest made of foam . . . the privilege of quiet
Feathers from Home, and Other Family Heirlooms
“If you wanted to remember someone or something, you had to choose carefully.”
The Watch of the Worry Dolls
“I found the worry dolls again, bittersweet reminders of a simpler time.”
In Which the Magpie Sees Wild Boars as Lost Children
Fukushima’s radioactive boars . . . Ovidian transformations . . . Amy Sillman’s “After Metamorphoses”
In Which the Magpie Lets the Dog Live
A dog and her birthday pancake . . . the fate of Old Yeller et al . . . Thomas Roma’s dog shadow photographs
In Which the Magpie Spies Collages in the Trees
Mike Nichols’s films . . . Hannah Höch’s cut-outs . . . Wallace Stevens’s jar on a hill
Learning to Cook After Relearning to Eat
I’ve gotten better at eating since rehab, but I’ve yet to explore the pleasure of food; of preparing it and enjoying it.
In Which the Magpie Considers the Possibilities of Outer Space
Spacepeople perch in trees . . . prisoners in the desert read the stars . . . escalators lead the way to the Big Bang
In Memoriam: On Cemeteries and the Memory of Ordinary Lives
Who could not be superstitious, sentimental, and impractical around matters of death?