we carry for safety a pairing
"We Carry for Safety a Pairing," December 28, 2022 (#362)
title from Like You'd Understand, Anyway by Jim Shepard (2007)
The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris (1988)
She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb (1992)
penultimate line from "Lamb to the Slaughter" by Roald Dahl (1954)
We Carry for Safety a Pairing
Pop the brass cylinders out easily with a sheet metal screw and
my head rocked back and forth and I suddenly saw how close I
came on in the fog. It was a floor lamp with a shade, standing on
a rotting porch step. Two middle-aged women materialized to
think patents only apply to unique mechanical devices and copyright
thirteen, fourteen hours. We won't get there till middle of tomorrow,
two pieces of cloisonné on the shelves, and a good secretary in burled
eyeglasses suspended on gold chains. The dress was an unpredictable
large sheeny blue moth sitting on a small branch, its wings folded
in an air-pillow bunting. I sat back down, absentmindedly popping
a shock and she’d become frantic with grief and horror. Mind you, she
curled feathers blown from the coops, carried on breaths of air.
12-26-22
12-28-22
12-6-21