Text Based: Black Books

  • THE EYE SEWN SHUT. Mrs. Berg had one pale blue eye and one eye sewn shut. My brother asked: Where is your lost eye? Mrs. Berg answered: Where is your gone tooth? My brother said: My gone tooth is on Mars! Mrs Berg replied: My lost eye is over the moon! This is true. It is not true that my brother's tooth was on Mars, or that Mrs. Berg's eye was on the moon. It's just that they met once, and conversed once, and asked each other these very simple questions. (from a series of found photos and strange narratives, originals bound in plain black cloth boards)
  • MY LOST TOOTH. My front tooth which has been very troublesome for some time came out today. And I carried it with me for some measure of good luck, and if not for good luck, then certainly for protection. It was in my hand when I opened my fingers to the news seller saying, take the fifty cents but leave the front tooth. He picked carefully among the coins -- a quarter, two dimes, and a nickel--but left the tooth and pennies. And the news? You might ask: was it good that morning? That is to say: did the front tooth bring fresh goodness and ward off misery? This is hard to say. For certainly I found no notice of my death but caught a small article on my imprisonment. And yes, even the photo showed my gap-toothed astonishment.
  • A LIST OF UNFORTUNATE HOURS. Mrs. Stein waited in the corner of the basement pantry with a paper crumpled in her hand, and her eyes fixed on Mrs. Berman. For you, she whispered to the younger woman as she pushed the paper forward. What's this? Mrs. Berman asked. A List of Unfortunate Hours, Mrs. Stein answered, like a perpetual calendar. Mrs. Berman smoothed the paper against her thigh and bent her head to read. January 2nd--from 30 minutes past 10 till 15 minutes past 11 in the morning and from 15 minutes before 9 till 20 minutes before 11 at night. January 15--from 15 minutes before 8 until 25 minutes before 10 in the morning and from 20 minutes before 9 until 30 minutes after 10 in the night. January 26 -- from 5 minutes after 7 until 10 minutes after 9 in the morning and from 20 minutes before 8 until 40 minutes after 9 at night. For the year 1914, it was complete.
  • THE BLIZZARD. My teeth clicked the top to the bottom and my fingers froze. My father tunneled his way from our house to theirs with the smell of tobacco behind him. The leather of his boots was the last I ever seen. I remember that snow tunnel. 'Cause the gas went out and the birds all died, flat and red by the kitchen door was where I found them gone when it all finally stopped.

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