1, 2, 3, 4, 5        by Rosanna Albertini

Thank you, COREY STEIN

“Numbers have such a pretty name … They have something to do with money and with trees and flat lands, not with mountains or lakes, yes with blades of grass, not much a little but not much with flowers, some with birds not much with dogs, quite a bit with oxen and with cows and sheep a little with sheep and so have numbers anything to do with the human mind … They ought to have something to do with the human mind because they are so pretty and they can bring forth tears of pleasure …” (Gertrude Stein)

And they have something to do with Corey Stein’s counting and beading, beading and counting and hanging stories of fear on the branches of a pine tree who shows the story of other trees dancing their deadly waltz on the wind – fire, fire! – asking the green green grass for relief but burning as well while a fox runs away from the flames in search of ponds lakes or a comfortable shade where to rest and count her dreams of rabbits maybe not so fast runners.

Maybe there is no crime if wind and flames are only told by words and beads and they only came to clean the forest to make space for young trees or the fox might run looking for her love in a different forest there is hope for sure although we never know what might happen that we are not able to see or tell, nor write. Fears have a house: they become a tree. Do they know that same body that embrace them contains the tools for a crime?