Exulansis

November ����

Exulansis

T he tendency to give up tr ying to talk about an exper ience because people are unable to relate to it. – T he Dictionar y of Obscure Sorrows

To my Nor ther n f r iends: I regret I can no longer speak with author it y about winter. I’ve forgotten the feeling of ears r inging with the silence of f resh snowfall, air so cold it stabs the lungs. Gone are those Norse names, the rough wool, heav y boots, bodies bent against wind so fierce there must be a name for it in L akota. I can’t recall how despair closes in, a cloud blanket for days, dense, ominous. Remind me how, in a whiteout, a person can get lost bet ween car and house. Tell me about children in muf flers waiting for the school bus in handmade huts, the shush of sk is down slushy streets. Didn’t we find Easter eggs nested on the icy cr ust? I do remember that just when you vow to never shovel another dr ive, the br ight flags of daf fodils flare.

— Debra Kaufman

Deb ra K aufm an’s m ost recent bo ok is Go d Shat tere d