...two small speakers, a navy blue cat dish, a small black frame with no glass, a number of Fern Michael type books, several programming books, a polka-dotted ceramic plant pot, a glass-topped box that I associate with displaying butterflies, a large frame with a collage of sorts in it.
We owe this bounty to a neighbor, who is moving out. I am 99% sure she is moving in with her boyfriend, who we started to see early in the summer as they walked down the sidewalk, his arm hooked behind her neck. So, no need for the stereo, his is better. No need for the cat dish because-? Not sure there.
The butterfly display case is intriguing, as is the collage. I think the collage frame actually houses a mirror, but this has been painted over in matte black. In the upper left corner, there is part of a woman's face that looks cut out of a magazine - a rather Marlene Dietrich-looking face, glamorous and European. The face peeks out of what first looks like a space suit because it's sort of white and puffy. Closer examination reveals it to be a sketch of an outfit of the sort I think of British nannies putting on their charges: a long heavy coat with large buttons, leggings and boots, and a head-fitting cap tied under the chin. Three pieces of yarn issue from this woman and attach to three squares that float below her: one is a topographical map, the next is a photo of four brick structures with different bricks missing, the third looks almost like an ultrasound picture, dark and murky. To the right of the women is the word "Age."
If I were to impose an interpretation on this collage, I'd think about age and what age means. the poet, W.S. Merwin, was quoted as saying this year when he turned 80 that he felt 27 inside. Here is this woman, older and glamorous of face, in her winter toddler outfit, still tied to places from her past.
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