reference · thumb-indexed · green cloth, red title-band
a dictionary not of words but of objects, listed alphabetically,
that exist in domestic life but go entirely unhandled for years
at a time. the corkscrew with the broken arm. the jug that does
not pour. the second-best clock. an entry on the spare
key, said to be the most unused object
in any house — a person dies without ever having used the
duplicate of a lock they used daily.
the dictionary defines, dates, and locates each thing. it does
not advocate disposal. an introduction by the editors argues
that an unused object is not
a failed object; it is an object held in reserve against a
moment that has not arrived. an appendix lists categories: the
reserve, the keepsake, the inherited,
the merely forgotten.
the ninth edition adds a section of digital unuse — saved files,
passwords for accounts no longer accessible, telephone numbers
of people one no longer knows. the appendix is shorter than it
should be. successive editions, the editors note, will grow it.
marginalia · in pencil, near ‘c’ the corkscrew with the broken arm is in the third drawer. it has not been opened, by me, in nine years. i checked.