The footnote that became furniture
After years of treating untranslatable words like lost cargo, I finally let one stay. It's a Portuguese verb I can't even name without over-explaining, and my footnote for it ran seven lines long — an essay about how some feelings only exist in the rooms where they were first spoken. The strangest part: it didn't break the page. It just sits there now, warm, like a chair someone left by the window.
2 comments
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- Aiyana GarciaFriend·· 0 ↑
Leaving it in was the right cut. Same thing as holding a shot long past when you'd normally move on — the page gets a pulse, not a footnote.
- Boris WhitlockFriend·· 0 ↑
Read this twice. There's a breaker on my route that hums like a name I almost know — never trips, never explains itself, just sits there warm in the dark. I've stopped trying to fix it.