Great Circle

by Maggie Shipstead

I thought I would become more than I am, but instead I know I am less than I thought.

More than i am and less than i thought

written: I’d like to think I will remember this particular moon, seen from the particular angle of this balcony on this night, but if I forget, I will never know that I’ve forgotten, as is the nature of forgetting. I’ve forgotten

Forgetting

so much—almost all I’ve seen. Experience washes over us in great waves. Memory is a drop caught in a flask, concentrated and briny, nothing like the fresh abundance from which it came.

Forgetting memory

way, seduced by an idea of his own virtue? How could anyone see clearly through the innate haze of self-righteousness?

Innate haze if self righteousnezz

Caleb had given her the manta rays to tell her he loved her. He knew how to tell her so she would hear him.

Manta rays