‘When young, we were impatient with our parents: now we want to atone for our callowness, to take measure of them, to understand which parts of them live on in us.’
The house my parents built for their retirement is now my sister’s. The last time I visited, in the spring, I went running on the Pennine Way, missed a signpost and ended up in a cul-de-sac near an isolated barn conversion, a mile from the village. Three Dobermanns emerged, more bark than bite but…
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‘We meet at various points in the great swathes of the past that neither of us were alive to witness.’
Allen Bratton on a daytrip to a castle with his older boyfriend.
‘Listening to three white poets, whom I suspect are academics, talk about the state of poetry.’
Oluwaseun Olayiwola eavesdrops on an older generation.
‘I’d been dubious about his company at first.’
Sarah Moss on watching Shakespeare with her twelve-year-old son.
‘She didn’t trust us because, to her, tenants were like children.’
Kate Zambreno on negotiating with her older landlady.
‘A moment now swallowed in embarrassment, I asked a question only a young person might ask an older one.’
Lynne Tillman on trying to understand what makes a generation.
‘One by one they’re led into the box. They swear their oath. They confirm their name, their employment, why they were where they say they were, what it was they saw.’
‘When did you last see your father? Was it when they burned the coffin? Put the lid on it? When he exhaled his last breath? When he last sat up and said something? When he last recognized me? When he last smiled? When he last did something for himself unaided?‘
‘My hopes weren’t high, even to begin with, so I felt no bitterness when He didn’t reveal Himself’
The house my parents built for their retirement is now my sister’s. The last time...
‘I'd already begun to suspect that sex brought misery or death, and now I knew.’
