dark horn · 14 mm · second from the bottom of a jacket
a small dark horn button, two holes, a hairline crack, a few inches of brown thread still through one of them. it was the second from the bottom of a jacket whose other buttons remain on duty without it.
it came off on the bus, between two stops, while a hand was being put hurriedly into a pocket. you felt the small loss as a small heat and caught it before it reached the floor. it has lived in this pocket since, in the company of the safety pin which would, in principle, have served to hold the jacket closed in its absence, except that you have not since worn the jacket.
to sew it back on would take, perhaps, three minutes, and you have had several thousand such intervals available to you. nevertheless, this button is one of those small repairs that nominally belongs to a calmer day. the day, when it comes, will find the button still here. it is not in a hurry. neither, on the whole, are you.
field-note · hold it to the light: the crack runs almost from edge to edge.
handkerchief · string · thimble · the button tin · forget