About the work

One of them crocheted it for a baby who was never born, or for a baby who grew too quickly out of all things handmade. They kept it. Not because it was beautiful, or particularly useful, but because it had been made with intent, with hope. It has ended up on the melon not by accident, but by a kind of ritual; an inside joke repeated at every gathering, a private blessing for abundance that has nothing to do with children. It keeps the melon cool, perhaps, or it just makes them laugh. The real question is how long it’s been waiting there.