O
Stars are not the end, but the beginning. A bird is to its throat as a promise is to its sharp edge. I wanted to make for you a sunshower. Instead I have made for you a mortal thing. Writing is knowing how to cut. There is a space in my body that did not exist when I began this book. It is a window. When I next speak, I will do so through that window. Please leave the window unlatched. When I next speak, it will be with changed lips. I wonder what their color will be. Finally, she enlarges the figure to a grand scale, and cuts off its head.
Note: The first italicized line in “O” is from Georges Didi-Huberman. The second comes from an image caption in the 2017-2018 exhibit of Louise Bourgeois’s work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.