untwist the paper and tip a few grains onto the windowsill or doorframe nearest the sound. do not repeat the words, even silently. carry on with what the hands were already doing; if they were doing nothing, give them something — folding, peeling, sweeping. the salt absorbs the residue that does not belong to you. by the next morning the sentence will have weakened and may be opened or discarded at your discretion.
ingredients
- a small pinch of grey salt
- one task the hands already know
- a humming of any kind, low
- a window the sound came through
- the long count to twenty, silent
do not apply when the sentence belongs to you and arrived only by another route. the salt will refuse it.
see the whisper, the rumor, the echo; and the humming that often replaces what should not be repeated.