Category: Liturgy
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1708: The Liturgy
Episode 3 — Liturgy for the Charity Van(for those who sort the belongings of the dead) I. The Van at the Door The charity van pulls up.The driver is kind but level,practised in the art of receivingwhat the living can no longer hold. Fenella watches him load the boxes,each one containing a fragmentof her grandmother’s…
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1008: The Liturgy #2
Liturgy for the Inherited Weight(for those who must sort through the past) I. The Objects That Remember Every object in this house carries a memory,one we pressed into itwith our hands, our habits,our refusal to let go. The chipped mug she dropped at seven,her grandmother kept using,as if the crack were not a flawbut a…
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0308: The Liturgy
Liturgy for the Dogs on the Windowsill(Rye Harbour, Sussex: where the sea keeps its secrets) I. The Threshold of SaltThe house faces the harbourthrough windows etched with winter’s salt,the brine of decades pressed into glasslike a watermark of all that has been lost. Salt in the hinges.Salt in the frames.Salt in the hems of curtainsthat…
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3007: Dead Men Don’t Drown
Dead Men Don’t Drown A Liturgy for an Unraveller(for those who stop accepting the family yarn) I. The Thread That HoldsEvery family has a story,a yarn spun so long and so oftenit becomes indistinguishable from truth. It is the tale told at gatherings,the narrative that keeps the peaceby keeping certain doors closed. You were raised…
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3006: The Liturgy
Liturgy for His Return, Cagnes-sur-Mer (Summer 1842 — Where the road remembers him) I. The Hill That Has Grown SteeperI found the hill steeper than I remembered,or else I had brought backless of myself than I meant to. This is what a year does.This is what the navy does.This is what it meansto be carried…
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2906: The Liturgy
Liturgy for the Year of His Absence(Cagnes-sur-Mer, Winter 1842 — Waiting Becomes a Way of Life) I. The Question That Never Leaves Where is Felreil? Not a question of geography.Not a question of distance.A question of existence:whether the world still holds him,whether the shadows have released him,whether he is still stridingin his English-blackened bootsthrough streets…
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2206: The Liturgy
Liturgy for a Long Absence — Cagnes-sur-Mer, 1836 – 1841 Where Waiting Is Believing I. The Winter That SettledWinter settled into the stone cottagelike a tenant who refuses to leave.The vines are bare,brittle,skeletal.Their fingers scratching at the skyand demanding warmththe season refuses to give. Even the small angelic statuesin the garden grimace at the cold,their…
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1506: The Liturgy
Part 13: Liturgy for the Beaucaire Fair(for those who buy and those who are bought) I. The Commerce of CrowdsThe fairground swallows them whole.Brigid and Felreil, two more bodiesin the great migration of need and greed. Trestle tables groan under linen and lace,under knives that promise to never dull,under potions that promise to never fail.Merchants…
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0806: The Liturgy
Brigid’s Diary: Part 12.2, “Liturgy for the Loose Floorboard”(Arles, 1836: where rebellion survives by passing from hand to hand) I. The Sound of ArrivalIt begins next door,the shouting,the boots on stairs,a man’s voice heavyas the stomp of his feet. Furniture dragged across wood floors.Children cryingbecause strangers have enteredtheir small kingdom of wallsand will not explain…
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0106: Liturgy for a Starry Night
Liturgy for a Starry Night, Part 12.1, Arles, Spring 1836(where beauty is the last thing left that belongs to us) I. The Yellow HouseIt sits on the corner,mustard yellow, warm to the eye,a promise of shelterthat the nose immediately contradicts. Damp plaster. Fried onion.Lingering acrid smoke from firesthat never fully caught. This is Arles.This is…
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