The First Week of Self Employment
BLUEMONT, Va. — My mien is affected. I smuggle a smile inside an unworthy worry wrapped in a burning desire. I’m happy and nervous. Wherever I abode, ordinary living has no hold on me. Uniform expectation and obligation cause me to doze. These hills are high enough to make the air feel fresh. I’m with friends and a lover. I’m free.
When The Dead Don’t Speak and the Living Won’t
ARLINGTON, Va. — I am told I may discern the fragmentation of the universe by observing how boulders become rocks, how rocks crumble to pebbles, pebbles to dust. They mean for me to remove myself from society and live alone among nature (a la Tu Fu or Wittgenstein) where I will surely understand how time expands and the horizon grows in a way that approximates the infinite.