Hamnet

Hamnet

When Eliza hears these claims, made in her presence by people in the street, by neighbours, by those to whom she sells gloves, she doesn’t pretend not to have heard. She stops in her tracks. She holds the eye of the gossip in question (she has an unnerving stare: this...
Night Boat To Tangier

Night Boat To Tangier

You know what I get to wondering, Maurice? Tell me, Charlie. About death, Moss. Here we go. Is it as raw a deal as they make it out to be? Come again? Is it not in some way an ease when she comes calling? The Black Angel? . . . Hush now . . . Listen? . . . The gentle...
The Dialogue of Two Snails

The Dialogue of Two Snails

White Snail.- (Silence.) (A young lady with a lace parasol comes along counting her steps. Upon reaching a little brook, she hesitates. Then she jumps.) Black Snail.- (Silence.) (The rat has crossed the river. The bad rat. The rat that devours the tender rootlets.)...
Homegoing

Homegoing

The men continued sipping the wine in silence for a while. In the trees, the birds were calling each other to sleep. A spider crawled over James’s bare foot, and he thought of the Anansi stories his mother used to tell him, and still told his younger brothers and...
Silence

Silence

IndeterminacyArtists talk a lot about freedom. So, recalling the expression “free as a bird,” Morton Feldman went to a park one day and spent some time watching our feathered friends. When he came back, he said, “You know? They’re not free:...