Ducks, Newburyport

by Lucy Ellmann

the fact that I think there’s maybe too much emphasis on facts these days, or maybe there are just too many facts,

Too many

the fact that the whole problem is that the adult world and the kid world are totally different places, but you try to bridge the gap,

Gap

the fact that I don’t know, but sometimes it just seems like there are too many tragedies in the world to be borne,

Borne

catnapping, the fact that it’s unbelievable but every single thing alive has its own center of being, and looks out on the world from that point of view, even a worm, or a jellyfish, hamsters, owls, the

Center

the fact that the Sandy Hook parents now get death threats, the fact that what happened to compassion, the fact that maybe there never was any really, or did we lose it somewhere,

C

the numbness of muted beings,

?