flatten them into a set

"Flatten Them Into A Set," January 1, 2022 (#1)

title from the New Yorker's "The Case Against the Trauma Plot" by Parul Sehgal (December 27, 2021)

"The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James (1898)

"Rectatitf" by Toni Morrison (1983)

Flatten Them Into a Set

My attention to them all really went to seeing them amuse themselves immensely.

We should have helped her up, I know, but we were scared.

I call it a revolution because I now see how, with the word he spoke,

I was laughing and applauding when

I carried out the spirit of the pledge given not to appeal to him.

I put my hands in my apron pockets,

groping about in his little mind for something plausible and not too

the end of our respective lines at the same time--

where at sight of me, it stopped short

the fact that one was nicer looking didn't hold much weight.

Blue Hawaii (1961)

1-1-22 of print of painting by georgia o'keeffe

1-1-22

from the New Yorker's "The Case Against the Trauma Plot" by Parul Sehgal (12-27-21) Illustration by Aldo Jarillo

1-1-22 of print of painting by georgia o'keeffe