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Repair
- University of Pittsburgh Press
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31 Repair More stall than store, his cramped space on Carmine smelled of Cat’s Paw leather cream polish. A belt, a boot, our shoes for soles: he restored them, mended your silver heron lamp from Norway, replaced your cracked crystal. He charged so little I wondered how he paid the rent, a Chekhov character transposed to the West Village, resolving toggle switches, latches, sundered bolts, talking to himself in Russian—jeweler’s loupe fixed to his face. After the towers fell, the shoe and watch man moved; what we couldn’t repair between us stayed broken. Seasonal vendors hawked fir and spruce wreaths. A mercantile buzz dizzied Carmine, where windows of valentines surfaced and disappeared. In restauro read the sign, that spring, on the Church of the Sacred Conversation. I missed our magician of the material, tried to bring you renovated things from the Used CD Emporium and Bookstore, bazaar of second and third chances, our New York beyond repair. ...