I contributed a piece for an art exhibit called Sorrows For Sale at the Partners & Spade gallery space.
The piece was an empty ring box, for sale, with the following explanation:
EMPTY RING BOX
We’d been dating for only two weeks when he gave me this box.
Two weeks, but it felt serious to me.
I’m not a ring kind of girl.
But in this relationship I found myself wanting things I didn’t think I wanted.
Erasing lines I’d drawn in the sand.
Thinking that maybe I’d really wanted all along was as simple and played out as something you could get in a box.
It seemed, as he handed me the box, like he knew me to my very soul.
Knew me better than I knew myself.
He watched as I opened the box.
A spring-loaded paper bauble popped out into my face.
It was a joke.
From the joke shop.
Ha ha! The box was empty.
The joke was on me.
That ole dollar-snatcher trick of the heart.
I do love practical jokes. Oh yes I do.
We dated for another six years. Give or take.
I also have some leather chairs from that relationship.
I’ll keep those.