T H E   T O W E R

Positive attributes : “Several states away, her countenance is always a mirror to mine, her brother’s to my brother’s. Her mother’s to my mother’s. Her father was a mirror to my father, maybe clearer than any others.”

Negative attributes : “I wished I took off work for his funeral.”

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September 2017 : Austin, Texas

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Keywords : “Relief, like sweet familiar dust. Lying in the heat you dreamt of, the heat of a childhood separated.”

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Life Situations : “Whispering — How could you leave me like this? With them? — out on Lady Bird Lake, alone. How the stream falls apart so slowly and gently. How it carries the sickness away.”

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In Reverse : “At ten o’clock the sliding doors opened before me. We snuck into the president’s office. We talked about a shooting in the 70s and drove past the same crime scene three times. I felt the lunacy of family, sugar brains melded together.”

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As a Yes or No Question : “Perhaps death and distance separate us. Perhaps we can only lie on the campus pavement, wishing for grass beneath our palms. But have you ever seen a clearer sky above that tower?

No.”

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