What I discovered when I decided to convert my desk from a storage place of three-foot-high piles to a functional place where I could write
Layer #1:
Receipt from certified mail to send COBRA payment to keep my health insurance after losing job
French vocabulary card for argent (silver, money)
Green-and-gold tomb-rubbbing bookmark of medieval Margaret Peyton, “the lace lady”
Small slip torn from an ad on the supermarket bulletin board: two young (they say) men selling small, split firewood
Gold ticket to the mummer’s parade in 2006, obtained under false pretenses when I pretended to be an out-of-towner at City Hall
Postcard advertising a novel, Carmen Dog, by Carol Emshwiller
Pretty little card of Jesus of the Sacred Heart
Note I’ve written to myself saying “12 Thirst, 12 Prayer, Birthday, Adultery, 13 Unlocking, 14 Random, Emissary, Dream”
Business card from Lewis Shacklock, Plumbing Specialist
Newspaper clipping with the headline “Unfair Tax Rule May Last Awhile” (so what else is new)
Old photo, much foxed and stained, of a stout old lady in an ankle-length flowered dress, probably taken in the 40’s. Who is she? I have no idea.
Book published by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1937 with such useful phrases as “formerly you did not wear stockings” and “the day before yesterday I sat here from morning to night.”
Recall notice with horrifying and dire information for all drugs containing phenylpropanolamine, which seems to be in every over-the-counter remedy I have ever purchased
I’ve only begun. Stay turned. In the meantime, excavate your own desk and share!