Ten.Three

1. Train horns at 5:33 a.m. Long and drawn out.

2. How many different way can I describe the density of air? It is milky, thick, heavy, syrupy, sticky, unmoving.

3. Mam and baby dear: the way they both turn toward me when I slide open the door, heads up, ears perked before they resume grazing. 

4. Cigarette smoke: the way it lingers long after the last drag.

5. Wet grass.

6. The collapse into cool, white sheets.

7. The way writing on this piece of hotel stationery evokes the smell of bergamot and lavender and rain. 

8. Sawdust. Varnish. The sound of the power washer against thin metal. 

9. The thinness of the air. 

10. Smears of black ink.