unter den Leben, part one

As I stood at the kitchen sink with this first woman, helping to either prepare food or wash up after dinner, I became aware of the suffusion of an amber yellow mistiness. This color was subtly permeating everything, as if carried in the air. But more than what I could see of it, there in the kitchen above ground in the woman’s comfortable, if dilapidated squat – the harsh concrete walls held this yellow, and I was particularly aware of the texture of concrete dust, of its coarse, loose grittiness – I was aware of the greater presence of all that I couldn’t see; the cement floors, walls, and ceilings beneath us, their catacombs and cold hallways and their rooms, these deeper, hidden levels, where other students roamed, and some temporarily lived, carrying electric light down with them in order to carve out small oases of human warmth in the darkness. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit briancshort.substack.com