численні (in two parts): dust collected from my brother’s home in Ukraine, archival photograph, Florida’s wildflowers, salt. 2022

I. Sweeping

Sometimes all we know is how to sweep the floor, and normally we sweep the dust into a heaping mass in the middle of the room. That repetitive motion of sweep, move the dustpan back, sweep, move it back becomes such a small motion in our daily lives that we never give dust the weight of a heart; or even a fluttering wing. But then we have some days of standing on the edge, so we sweep the dust to a corner in the hopes to contain, preserve, or make use of these hands which once knew the feeling of you or your bed or your doorknob.

Weeks into the invasion, I received a package containing a handful of dust that my brother sent me before he left his apartment in Kyiv. Pollen burn, wing sweat, slow burn. I wanted to take it all apart, piece by piece, preserve the individual grains as stories and memories which that space once held

2.Salting

brine, curing, leaving in place, for a while, inactivated, hypertonic, standstill,

Place photograph of your home into a jar with water and salt, leave in place, for a while.

.

How much of you is sustained through what’s left?

The layering becomes crystallization of salt left upon the imprints of this room. Our experiences become the point of contact between needing to take care of something by preserving the moment. Memory become imbued in a room.

численні adjective

numerous, many many of, many a; many people, man, many women, the ordinary people, one of many things, much of a great extent, many words especially in elliptical phrases, to cut a long short story; an abundance of, much, large, appearing or acting on many occasions, assiduous, regular, used many times; (of persons) too much in evidence, tedious, wearisome, verbose; occurring in a high degree, full, intense, численні день: broad daylight, численні ніч: late in the night, perhaps too late.