Tuesday, 25 February 2003 | Miss

What do you miss? Is it something you chose to give up and now regret? Or did it leave you without your consent, slipping away like youth? Were you faced with a choice, such as between cities, and it was only possible to choose one? Did you expect to miss it? Do you prefer the familiar empty space it creates in your chest, or would you rather feel nothing? Do you want it back unconditionally, or is there just a quality you miss about it, such as the way she tried to keep a straight face when telling a joke, or the way he looked at you when you were in the room? Do you avoid thinking about it, or do you turn up the volume when that song comes on? Or perhaps you are caught in between, far from the easier-to-manage extremes, and instead are sitting in a tangled mess of fence that broke beneath you long ago.

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The Onion as a prophet.