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Portrait of the Artist with Toothpick Bridge
- University of North Texas Press
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15 Portrait of the Artist with Toothpick Bridge Last place: in retrospect, I could’ve thought about the laws of Statics and Kinetics, or drawn a blueprint. No, I chose aesthetics, hung up, like all new kids, on first impressions. But decorating sticks with sticks, I grew concerned: my trusses barely bore the glue, much less a brick. Poorly conceived, and wrought, the thing was lucky it survived the ride to school. And while I’d gain perspective, years after I faced the junior engineers, the meantime left me to my indiscretions: minor, but of a very public nature. Despite my having learned the nomenclature of tension-turned-suspension, I relied on other terms: an ornamental apse and ziggurats, I said, were more my style. Thus, holding it together for my trial was difficult. I tried to make concessions for shaky hands and braces, but fell short— a lesson, not in how to build support, but how to stand back, watching it collapse. ...