the pace at which
The tall earth lilts me
trippily on prongs.
—Sophia Dahlin
hello. i am currently
heading to the post
office so that i can
pay my rent this month
(a small reminder to myself:
it’s a money order, not a
cashier’s check, i think?),
on the monday after easter,
which, like all holidays this past
year, mean nothing, are of no
consequence, being not unlike
any regular day. i’ve gotten so
used to this one man show here
at the hotbox that days go by and
i haven’t even stepped out the door,
but now i’m out, out and performing
what surely must strike anyone taking
notice as a ridiculously lugubrious bit
of speed-walking, which has made for
what feels like a larger-than-organ-sized
tetrahedron of concentrated pain emanating
from the better half of my gut due, most ass-
uredly, to the general laziness and lack of any
exertion that twelve and a half months (give or
take a day or two) of virulent contagion-imposed
solitude, brought about thanks to no small amount
of fear (also virulent, thanks to said virulence) and
a moderate portion of general etiquette, which, in
such duration have combined to enable discipline
enough to have turned this erstwhile extravert into
an agoraphobe (a side effect so illogical that, despite
having caught the scourge, recovered from it and
being vaccinated for it, all in the span of the last
month and a half, it remains the ruler of this
particular domain!), , ,which all brings me
back to the lovely scene of me, wincing
with each step i take (thinking I’m
going at quite a clip and yet, am
surely just as slow as the
days are long), so that
in i shall walk, round
about 4:59pm,
so that i can
purchase
from the
u.s. postal
service a
piece of
paper
that
will
keep
me hanging
on for at least
one more month
in my cozy little
home sweet
home in
the hood.
which is
a nice re-
minider, act-
ually, that things
aren’t half bad.
they’re not even
bad at all, really.
so what if i wince
just a bit as i
hobble up the
stairs and slip
the check
into its slot,
then mosey
up just one
more flight
to my modest
little box to post
this silly note to
you, as if to say
hello, and how
are you, it’s been
quite a while, but
here i am. and
here i shall
(knock wood)
remain,
as ever,
yours
