‘By Longing’ by Eleanor Hooker [pdf format]
PNSpring17
Not again
When I came home that night you were raving to the shipping forecast in the kitchen, moving with the grace of a broken puppet and wearing the hair of the dog; his brown fur. I said you bring me peace like an earthquake. You turned on the smashed-up tiles and said watch what happens when […]
Names
I am trying to talk about you without mentioning your name, so I say: we went to see a film last night, meaning you and I, or she treats me very well, as in, you love me, or I’m going out for Indian tonight, implying a candle- lit dinner for two. It isn’t always easy […]
Considerations when Curating the Past
Sorting and divvying family photos, my sister and I find an old envelope. There’s a picture of mother and father before they were married, he’s smiling, his arm around her. Her face makes us shudder. It’s the only photo we’ve discovered where she looks as we remember her. Rose pushes it away, but I add […]
Sweetcorn
Rwanda, 2014 They appear at my doorway every morning: golden parcels, encased in leaves; sometimes avocadoes, peas. I don’t know the reason, maybe a greeting. I never hear him though later, perhaps, I’ll catch him walking under banana trees, where the track widens: the careful step, the stick, the tightened shawl, as children dip down […]
On Not Knowing
The nature of regret is delicate, a door that should have been there, but is not; what happened back up in the hills was a matter of luck, nothing personal – the fact of the forests, the leaf-moths, the fork in the road. (There are no images, save for the river running to sand, salt […]