By Sheila E. Murphy
She arrived once a year with her machinery, materials, and authority to clean the carpets. Not only did she draw all known substances from the wool in a single day, she delivered gratis lectures on a wide variety of topics, never by request.
Chez nous, all productive hours were canceled in the wake of this human beehive. The whole house, upside down and doors wide open. As mild compensation, our store of knowledge on science, atmosphere, and physics steadily increased throughout the day to match improvement in air quality.
I recommended her to an acquaintance whose carpets needed help. Her competence, I thought, would make it worth his loss of quiet time. Au contraire: he made it clear he would prefer a filthy carpet to her constant dissertating.
This same friend has since experienced bronchial troubles that started with a fit of coughing. I have wondered yet remind myself of the difference between causation and correlation.
* * *
Sheila E. Murphy. In 2020, Luna Bisonte Prods released Golden Milk. Murphy’s book titled Reporting Live from You Know Where (2018) won the Hay(na)Ku Poetry Book Prize Competition from Meritage Press (U.S.A.) and xPress(ed) (Finland). Murphy is the recipient of the Gertrude Stein Award for her book Letters to Unfinished J. (Green Integer Press, 2003). Her wikipedia page is: