A tapestry bought from a thrift store inside a gas station has started to move before my eyes. The gas station was in the Midwest. The thrift store was in the Midwest. The tapestry is of an English lord standing over his knights and vassals, receiving fealty, and somehow they’re moving: low bows, blinking eyes, whispering lips. How bizarre, an English icon here in the desert, perhaps carried by a dead ancestor across the ocean long ago. How bizarre, the kings and queens and lords and ladies, today and then. How bizarre, the shifting threads and swirling color in my living room. I’ll close my eyes now, and in a few hours things will be back to normal. Find more about Perera Elsewhere at Friends of Friends.
words by Laura Yao.