URGENCY

I.

Urgency affects its immediate surroundings in much the same way a fire does. It catches and spreads, and your only best shot at safety is to remove yourself from the situation entirely—to watch your life burn before your eyes, and believe that your distance will spare you the same fate.

II.

She moved to San Francisco. Or was it Istanbul? Today, an hour's drive and a day's flight feel equally prohibitive. We don't talk so much. I wonder, from time to time, how life is over there.

III.

Two giant maples grow in the front yard of my mom's house. The old lady across the street, before she died, said she remembered them being planted when she was a young girl. The roots of the one closest to the house is stressing the old home's foundation, so they'll have to remove it. So many falls raking those leaves.