drawings raze whenever i find a piece of paper someone folded and threw away, i always hope i've unearthed some scuffed fragment of a stranger's soul. usually it's a grocery list. and then there's this: a crude drawing of a woman with lank hair and rough circles for feet. a glorified stick figure. i can't tell if she's happy or just trying to look the part. standing beside her are three people who've been erased. friends or family reduced to pinpricks in the peripheral vision of an interloper whose eyes won't open to take in whatever light there still is. in the absence of any words to explain the scene, i can only wonder what her story is, and who she's missing. 221215 ... tender_square the plodder spits out onyx ink in large swathes. massive measurements sketched to smaller scales. architects and engineers made these bird’s eye layouts, flattened diagrams of mechanics and innards unseen. these drawings are tender, not yet tough enough for construction. i arrange a black bassinet below the feeder to catch prints off the press. the pages are warm, larger than my wingspan. these projects will take years of incremental adjustments and change. these pages will be marked by ballpoint, by sweat and spilled coffee, passed between thousands of hands that make this crumbling city rise. 230622 what's it to you? who go blather from