Still Life by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview
Download the book in PDF, ePub, Kindle for a complete version.
Still Life
Page 41
pockets it; not as a souvenir, but as a future alibi. They speak in half sentences; "More or less," "It's neither here nor there," "I didn't break it." “It’s not my job to fix it.” The garden listens, but does not respond.
The Swan Pond is a mirror with attitude. One swan glides past, too elegant to be sincere. Susie calls it "the ghost of a debutante." Finn suggests it's rehearsing for a role in a forgotten ballet. They sit by the water and invent a glossary:
Perusal: to wander without obligation
Adaptation: to misinterpret with flair
Inevitability: the swan's refusal to turn around
The Arboretum, finally, is where they lose track of time. Trees from every continent stand like diplomats in exile. Susie bows to a Japanese maple. Finn salutes a Lebanese cedar. They declare the grove a neutral zone, free from annotation. No photos. No conclusions. Just the sacred rhythm of walking without arrival.
They linger not to learn, but to unlearn. The gardens become a rehearsal space for inevitability, a choreography of refusal, a still life in motion.
They return to the castle not as guests, but as improvisers reentering the set. The gravel path crunches beneath their shoes