SEASON 2 LOVE LETTER
Dear Reader,
We’ve missed you. We were thinking of you.
Over ice cream at the stadium. In the backseat
on the way to haircuts. A dark snow rolling
down the street. Thank you for being dear to many.
Thank you for wondering where we’ve gone.
You live in a place very far away. Then in the middle
of the city. Then as a speck of fuzz inside a paper mill.
And your field is empty. Impossible to get through.
With an invisible forcefield. The wind picks up.
The rain passes. Then you are a glitchy beam of light.
In the process of obtaining a learner’s permit.
Then your car rides are consistent car rides.
Then you are moving somewhere every day.
You there, trying to stay dry. Sometimes you are hungry,
thirsty, and sleepy, and dizzy. Sometimes you feel
nothing really. Sometimes you feel something else.
Maybe you wake up in the dark. Maybe you stay
too late. Or go there early. Or run all day. In dead
banquet halls and the ribbons line dirty wallpaper
with plastic cups strewn about the carpets and you
are tearing up a corsage. Or you don’t go to bed
on time. A train station you have seen before
but don’t know your way around. You are probably friendly
and so you are never lonely. You can control lightning
possibly. Or puke pure light. Or are by people.
And your neighbors all think kindly of you and
maybe you exchange pleasantries inside an elevator.
And you are watching a scary tv show about a sentient sofa.
Then you might find it difficult to speak with others.
So you love parties. So you are quiet as a person.
And fumbling with a carabiner in a kitchen when
the power comes back on. It is almost morning
over houses. You reach at a dial. New sad songs
on the broadcast. Now your larger purpose is rightly
being summoned. You humming along. We hear you.
We are also. We’ve been waiting, but cannot forever.
With love,
Ian
Nothing in the Knife Room is made alone.
Note: This love letter is written after the introduction of “When You Think of It”, notnostrums, 2009.
Season 2 was published in March 2024.