twelve seconds each

A woman at a bus stop in October pulls her glove off with her teeth. The glove stays in her mouth while she finds the right coins. She does not look up.

The dog is asleep on its side. A fly lands on its ear. The ear flicks. The fly does not leave. The ear flicks again. The fly does not leave. The ear stops flicking. The fly stays.

A man eating an orange in the parking lot of a tire shop. He has already eaten half. He has not peeled the rest. He bites through the rind.

The kettle is whistling. No one is in the kitchen. The whistle goes on. A cat enters the kitchen, walks past the kettle, exits the kitchen. The whistle goes on.

In the lobby of the office building someone has left a single shoe on the third step of the stairwell. It is a left shoe. It is brown.

The boy at the piano is six. He is playing the same two notes over and over. He does not look at his hands. He is watching the fish in the tank above the piano.

A bottle of olive oil on a wooden counter. The label is peeling on the right side only. The kitchen is otherwise empty. The oil inside is half gone.

On the train a man asleep with his mouth open. His glasses are fogging from his breath. No one wakes him. The glasses fog more.

A child in the supermarket aisle is pressing her thumb into the plastic of a yogurt container. It does not break. She presses harder. Her mother does not notice. The plastic does not break.

A pigeon is walking along the edge of a roof. There is a piece of string in its beak. The string is much longer than the pigeon. The pigeon walks the length of the roof.

The barber is shaving the back of an old man's neck. The radio is playing a song with no words. Outside it is starting to rain. The barber does not stop. The old man does not move.

A glass of water on the windowsill in the late afternoon. The light is going through the water. The light is on the wall in the shape of the glass. The glass is half full. The light is on the wall.