Lisbon
Writing

Lisbon is built for missing things.

Fado city · Atlantic edge · The end of Europe

Lisbon is the only city in Europe facing away from it. Its back is to the continent and its face is to the Atlantic, which is to say it faces nothing, or everything that hasn't arrived yet. The Portuguese have a word — saudade — that doesn't translate cleanly into English. It means something like the presence of an absence. Lisbon is the city that word was invented for.

"She had lived in Lisbon for six months before she understood that the city was built for missing things. Not her things specifically. Just things. The city expected it. It had prepared for it. The hills were arranged so loss would have somewhere to go."

Tumbleweed Words — Lisbon, October

The Lisbon pieces in Tumbleweed Words are concerned with waiting. Not dramatic waiting — not crisis — but the ordinary human condition of being slightly ahead or slightly behind the moment you are actually in. Narrow streets. Trams that appear without warning. The smell of grilled fish at noon. The specific quality of Atlantic light in October.

David — Tumbleweed Words Flash fiction and poetry written on trains, in hostels, and in city streets. Published in Litro, Adelaide Magazine, Cleaver Magazine, and The Dundee Anthology. Pushcart-nominated. Five years on Substack.