Pleasant Distractions, Part One

1. Putting on my glasses when they are freshly cleaned
2. The clicky keys of a 90‘s keyboard, specifically the one at the school library search desk
3. Pouring precisely the right amount of sugar for a recipe in one go
4. Beating down freshly proofed bread dough
5. When you walk by me and stop to kiss my shoulder

…

1. Slicing into a perfectly ripe avocado half
2. A finger traced over a scar about which no questions are asked, a kiss on my kneecap
3. The meaningful silence after two people sigh, their gazes averted
4. The chime of a good morning text
5. Picking the melted wax off a candlestick

…

1. The second bite of something warm on a cold winter’s evening
2. Your thumb caressing the side of my face
3. Stepping onto a freshly paved street, afraid I might leave a footprint
4. The ink reaching the end of the page
5. The first district at 4 in the morning, when only the street lamps and the horses are awake

…

1. The indelicate, borderline-obscene consumption of an overly-ripe peach, its juice running down my neck
2. Washing the dirt off my feet under lukewarm water after I have spent the day outside in a park. It reminds me of walking in Paris, how my shoes were always dusty and unfashionable but I was free
3. When you kissed my forehead in front of everyone while I thought we were still a secret
4. My mother brushing her fingers through my hair
5. Picking the label off a sweating bottle of beer

…

1. The rumble of a modern train on old tracks
2. Sitting in the passenger seat, your hand on my knee
3. Prying a loose brick from an old wall
4. The heavy chill of my grandmother’s pearl necklace
5. Taking off my bra the moment I walk into the front door

…

1. Ordering a cappuccino after dinner not because I need the caffeine but because I want the evening to continue
2. Pulling the dried petals off an open rose
3. Pressing ganache into unfilled macarons
4. A borrowed sweater in a chilly room
5. The clear and empty water of the Alte Donau on a rainy Tuesday morning when the dirt has settled and the entire river is mine