Simple Interruptions

Written for dVerse MTB: Zuihitsi – Following the Brush.
Our host, Merril, invites us to write a Japanese hybrid
form of poetry. This 10^th century poem style is new to
dVerse; this is my first attempt at writing Zuihitsu .

Tuesday. The radiator ticks. Someone on the street below is arguing with a parking meter, or maybe it’s a phone …. hard to tell anymore which debates are with machines and which are with people.

I’m trying to make a grocery list.

Milk. The good kind, from the farm in Millerton that puts the cows’ names on the label. Last week it was Cynthia. I don’t know why I remember that.

I know I’ll often stop and think about them.

Eggs. Bread. That particular mustard my cousin introduced me to in a kitchen that smelled like fresh paint and burnt toast …. much like this kitchen, right now. Smell is the great sneak attack. You think you’re standing in your own life and then: 1986. A Tuesday, maybe. Also a grocery list, probably.

The parking meter argument has resolved itself, or moved on.

I write down: lemons. I don’t need lemons. But someone, somewhere in my past, always needed lemons …. kept a bowl of them on the counter just for the color, the smell, the readiness of them.

I cross out lemons.

Here’s what I’ve learned about the mind: it’s not a filing cabinet. It’s more like a city …. districts you visit often, streets you stumble onto after decades and recognize by the angle of the light …. or the smell. The things you didn’t know you remembered.

Milk. Eggs. Bread. Mustard.

Lemons.

NAR©2026

Nancy’s Notes: Zuihitsu is a Japanese hybrid form of poetry from the 10^th century that incorporates nonfiction, musings and confessions, poetry, and miscellany to create a spontaneous, layered text.

This is “In My Life” by The Beatles

MTB: Zuihitsu

^{Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, unless otherwise indicated. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.}