The Silence Before the Word It happens in the middle of a sentence you are still speaking. The office hum continues, the fluorescent lights maintain

The Crack in the Wall You Cannot Stop Looking At You pass it every day. The building on the corner of the street you have

The Plaque on the Wall You take the photograph. You already know, in the half-second before you press the button, that you will never look

The Crack in the Wall You Cannot Stop Looking At You are standing in a room where something has broken, and you cannot look away.

The Crack in the Wall You are standing in front of something broken, and you cannot move. It is not paralysis born of ignorance —

The Crack in the Fresco Your fingertip finds the edge before your eyes do. There is a hairline fracture running diagonally across the plaster, almost

The Hand That Commands Stone You are standing too close. You know you should step back, find the proper distance that museums and art history

The Light That Falls on the Wrong Face You are standing at a bus stop at two in the morning when you see it: a

The Wound Before the Canvas You are standing in front of a painting and something is wrong. Not wrong in any way you can name

The Confession Booth You Never Left You know the pause. The half-second before you say something true, when your mouth has already opened and the

The Gold That Does Not Warm You are standing in front of something that does not want to be beautiful for you. That is the

The Gaze That Does Not Blink You step into the half-dark and the gold hits you before your eyes have adjusted. Not a warm gold,