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Maria Martin: Holding Pattern

August 25, 2017 by PBQ 1 Comment

It  is  difficult  to  describe  objects anymore.
As  soon  as I  begin to  describe  an object,  I
see  a woman  alone   on  the  telephone  and
then  I fall  asleep.  The  woman  is losing her
hair.  She  stands in and out  of  the light that
falls   from  a   kitchen window,  not  thinking
of  anything.  It is easy to assume she is  part
of  my   imagination   because  she  does  not
have  arms.  I   could  imagine  the  arms,  but
then  her  body  at  once  becomes  lost,  and
the   telephone   is   out   the    window.   This
makes  barely  an   impression on my mind. I
have   been   trying  to   think  of   something
that  I have  not  thought  of   before.  These
days,  though,  thoughts   turn   into women
who  are   barely    holding   objects   before
tossing  them out the  window and then we
both  fall asleep.  It does   not concern me, I
have  said,  watching  a fly   land on an edge
of   paper.   The   fly   made   rapid   motions,
spitting   on  himself  to  clean his  hands.  It
became   him  to  land   on  the  paper,  as   it
becomes  him  to  appear definitively  small
against any  given  landscape. I assume you
are   inside   a   room.   I   assume  you   have
gotten the letter. I see you stand the way a
person stands when being thought of, held
against yourself, outside of time.

Filed Under: Contributors 96, Issue 96, Poetry, Poetry 96 Tagged With: contributors 96, issue 96, Maria Martin, Poetry, poetry 96

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Richard Garcia says

    December 14, 2017 at 7:44 pm

    Wow! I like the way some writers describe the work of other writers. I recently read a piece by George Saunders talking about an Irish novelist. He quoted a paragraph and then said. Holy shit!

    Reply

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