Spoon Me — Ohm
Early Saturday morning. Awake before 9, covers pulled off, faint music on. Writing is beginning to feel like survival again.
It begins with a distant sound, so muffled and out of range that it’s hard to tell if it’s an actual train coming or just the sound of the world moving around you, as it always does. Then there are the lights that guide the train down the black river to its stop, first reflecting off the white tiled walls before spotlighting you, lone patron on the platform. All the while a slight breeze trails the tunnel, picking up your hair, shifting even the tiniest strands.
Somewhere, someone’s bones have softened to the point that they’re willing to give them up. Crushed, ground to a fine dust that floats through the air.
It’s all I can think about. I can’t help but wonder if they just wanted to be lifted up, someone to save them right before it happens. Won’t someone, please, just lift them up?
Mamihlapinatapai is a word from the Yaghan language of Tierra del Fuego, listed in The Guinness Book of World Records as the “most succinct word”, and is considered one of the hardest words to translate. It describes “a look shared by two people with each wishing that the other will initiate something that both desire but which neither one wants to start.” (via Martin)
