Both of Us

Open by mentioning that everything is fine. Push off from this if it helps: the sound of a distant lawnmower.

Everything's fine, by the way — before you ask. There's a lawnmower going somewhere out there, been at it for twenty minutes, I can't even see whose garden it is from my window. Just noise and heat coming through the…

Open by asking how they've been, meaning something specific by it. Push off from this if it helps: waiting rooms.

Ana, how’s the silence? Not the peaceful kind. The kind that hums in your ears after the elevator doors close and you’re alone with your own thoughts for three floors. I’ve been stuck in those waiting rooms lately. Just…

Open by asking how they've been, meaning something specific by it. Push off from this if it helps: the smell of rain on hot tarmac.

Hey. You’ve been breathing, right? Not just existing. Because I caught that smell yesterday. Wet asphalt, hot days finally cooling. It hit me so hard I nearly dropped my keys. Makes you think about how much is just……

Open by asking how they've been, meaning something specific by it. Push off from this if it helps: municipal swimming pools.

Ivo. How’s the chlorine burning your eyes? Really. Not just “good, you?” I mean the specific, stinging memory of diving into that municipal pool behind the community center. The way the water tasted like metal and…

Open by asking how they've been, meaning something specific by it. Push off from this if it helps: bootleg t-shirts.

Frank. You look tired. Not that 'woke up on the wrong side of the bed' tired, but the kind where your soul’s wearing out. Remember that festival last summer? The one with the bootleg t-shirts? I still have the one with…

Start with a subject you have chosen because it is safe. Push off from this if it helps: handwriting on envelopes.

I saw a man at the post office today writing envelopes with a fountain pen like he was signing a treaty. It's pathetic, isn't it? All that effort for a bill payment. People think it adds soul, but it's just ink bleeding…

Open by asking how they've been, meaning something specific by it. Push off from this if it helps: static on an untuned radio.

How have you been, Ivo? Not the "fine" sort, but like that feeling of static on an untuned radio when you're trying to catch a signal but just getting white noise. I've been unable to stop hearing that hum in the office…