EACH A LOOSE PAGE COPIED

◝◝◝ You picked up my empty cup to read the leaves, the porcelain still speaking warm breath on a frosty day. You read it out, my fortune, describing images from the debris. There is an oculus – Rome will be somehow significant. And a bundle hanging from the roof, writhing, a sort of superorganism. Tides ever rising, of course. Someone with blue eyes… And at that, you’ve lost me. It’s a fine guess and a plausible story but when I reach for my cup after you leave I see it there, the little sticks arranged into a jaunty alphabet. Like a foal just learning to walk, or people on the beach at sunset using their bodies to spell ‘LOVE’, altogether too many knees and elbows but nevertheless there it was, improbable, legible, word for word.

◝◝◝ I’d left our time together thinking that it might not be a bad idea to try out taking a vow of silence. At least for a short while. And I did try, but this change in the atmosphere made my clouds heavier and heavier until they snowed, blanketing the pavement where you stand like a compass, waiting for me to arrive, drawing your circumference with your toe.

◝◝◝ Maybe this is it, the road I take to arrive at words. A left into the cul de sac. Word and image alike can feel like a person’s mostly, their sensory experience, their cerebral one, at the door ready to meet you. For if you weren’t there, well, there is always plenty to do inside and they’ll keep themselves busy until you ring the bell. Language hangs between the coats and scarves.

◝◝◝ Mahogany L. Browne:

If I can write
I do
if I can write
I do
I can write
I do

◝◝◝ She described it as wanting to hold more moments between us. Unspoken moments, therein implied.

◝◝◝ Two posters sit at a table. One says Lost, the other Desperately Seeking. They’re both optimistic, animated and present and keep interrupting one another. At one point, one of them knocks over a glass of red wine, and it spills into the other’s lap, making the copy run, and as time goes on this one begins to look wilted and mushy like a biscuit held a second too long in tea. When they get up to leave they see that one’s number has been distorted beyond legibility, and the other’s tear-off tabs have all been taken.

◝◝◝ I’d placed my call outside the supermarket, on the pinboard. It had been fine at home when I’d practised it to myself, but here in the cacophony, I noticed how soft my voice really is. Each time someone walked past we’d all strike up, asking questions, making offers.

◝◝◝ You told me you’d learned a new trick. To move. You got to catch their eye by going like this, you told me, standing up and doing a jagged body wave, holding onto an imaginary pole with one hand. Don’t start with the chorus, it’s about creating apprehension. Kga kga kga! A snapping percussion. You’ve to make yourself stand out. Does it work though? I mean, overall there’s a decrease in quantity, but when someone does come over, they’re really quality. Like, they take the time to read and everything, they take a picture with their phone. You look like a raggedy flag, probably long expired, I say. Says you, eyebrows raised, head cocked slightly, and at that, perfectly timed, your phone starts vibrating in your pocket.

◝◝◝ After the troposphere changed, sounds ceased to carry in the same way they once had. We had all taken to walking around with mouth trumpets, cone-shaped amplification devices to help our voices carry. I had several in different sizes and would pick one depending on how great my audience would be on any given day. Still, they were an imperfect solution and gave their own set of problems. For one, the words would still fall, and begin to build up on the inside. We prolonged the use of each cone by rotating it incrementally, a bit like drinking a cappuccino from different points around the rim to get all the foam, but in reverse. We’d use them until the sediment obscured fresh speech, and then flatten them out and throw them away.

◝◝◝ Back of the bathroom door
University
Womens’ toilets
Egg donation
Up to R20000 reward

◝◝◝Learn the guitar today. Puppies for sale. A moving company. Computer and phone repair. Homme à tout faire. Domestic worker. Trailer to rent. Reiki. English tutor. Missing papegaai. High school choir concert. Open house this Sunday. Driving lessons, guaranteed success. Plow rental. Housekeeper. Have you seen this man? Wanted by police. Roll-on lawn. Babysitter with years of experience. Apartment for rent. Running club. Warning! If you see him call 083870244. The dog’s name is DJ Chien. Donate your eggs. Have you seen this woman? REWARD

◝◝◝ ‘The public, the passerby, the person on the street. To whom it may concern. For your attention.

◝◝◝ Beyond all those words, there were three implicit questions:
Did she jump?
Did she fall?
Was she pushed?

◝◝◝ REWARD