she has finished it. now she is reading it again, slowly, in case it changes on the second pass. her shoulders are doing something that her face is not.

a pigeon walks across her shoe. she does not move her foot. when she folds the page it is along the existing creases — the letter has been opened, then, more than once today.

field-note i sat on the next bench for some time. she did not look up. on leaving, she put the letter in her bag rather than the pocket she had taken it from.

letter bench someone reading a letter patience memory