Sophia talked to me about feeling unsettled and having a lot of change in her life, both emotionally and physically. She has been thinking about home as a concept and had a desire to feel more grounded. The word she asked me to use was “Rip Van Winkle.”

For: Sophia Seki Fox

Rip Van Winkle falls asleep and wakes up to thirteen stars. Nationhood piecemealed from tattered rags. Dust. He time travels without sleep walking in any direction. Dreams in two languages. Crops familiar, but the grain goes against him. Slipping into old units of measurement like warn wool. Thinner than it used to be. Does he say, in centimeters or inches, “A revolution happened and I never cracked an eye. Because of my absence, would understand if the ground refused to hold my weight. But it does. Layers of home peel away like an onion. Birds sing stranger chords than I last remembered. Proof of my capacity to hold music in abundance. The places we live change without our permission. So it is. Wherever I am, we are alike in our newness.”

From: Maya