On Dust
Posted on January 19, 2009
Filed Under Aphorisms | 2 Comments
It is ubiquitous but hidden, until sunlight streams through a window to reveal that we are swimming in it. It swirls around and surrounds us like krill in an ocean current. We cannot escape it. It falls like rain, incessantly, until it covers everything, like silt at the bottom of a lake. The slightest movement stirs up whole galaxies of the stuff, spiral nebulae of hair follicles and skin flakes. We move from day to day, from room to room, like comets, shedding shreds and fragments in our wakes. When the light changes, though, the trail vanishes. Dust still swarms in secret onto every surface, but we can’t see it. Even what is nearest, most prolific is invisible unless properly lit.
A version of this abbreviated essay appears in the January-February issue of Ode.
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And there it was, just staring me in the face, a big 3 inch long fuzzy-wadge of conglomerated dust/material/fuzzyness…and clearly with Tammy’s cat hairs in it and God knows what else it was…just sitting on the carpet without a care in the world…looking like something like a dismembered grey mouse…I just had to throw it out the window (onto passers-by in the street no doubt)…I think I had better hoover under the bed more often…who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of those who forget to hoover under the bed once a month!
…I can’t say I worry too much about “dust” I just get the “ladies who do” to “Do something about it!”