Collecting bottles, tossing leftovers, taking out the garbage
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Richard Meisler writes and teaches in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He’s the author of Trying Freedom: The Case for Liberating Education (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich).
Writing words on paper is particularly arrogant. How presumptuous to believe that words on paper can capture meaning, freeze life, hold it for even a moment.
The women of my life stand in a full circle around me, waiting for me to choose among them. The clothes and expression and posture of each woman recall a particularly intense moment in our lives together. I look into their eyes and see them pleading. This is my dream and my nightmare.
I call her “Juliet.” I don’t remember her name, and it is possible that I never knew it. Her image came to me at six o’clock every evening for years. I went to the upper floor of my house, entered any room, and turned off the light.