Victoria Meilin Helmer: The Needle
Photo: Joanna C. Valente
Text Version:
The Needle
It was as if this needle refused to be threaded. All it had to do was sit still and let the twine
inside, but no matter how hard they tried, the poor thread just frayed, strained, and furrowed,
freshly splitting itself up every entrance attempt. The sewer, an accolade-adorned craftsman, had
never encountered a needle so obnoxious. The needle, they thought, was deliberately being
difficult. The craftsman’s silly opinion did not bother the needle, however, who lacked sentience.
An omniscient entity, though, would know that there was a shard of glass in the needle’s eye that
repelled everything. The sewer, despite their stellar depth perception, couldn't have known
since they hadn’t cared to take a look. This unawareness kept the needle pointless. The needle, of
course, hadn’t known about the glass stuck in its eye, either. They, being an object, could neither
perceive nor feel.
Victoria Meilin Helmer (she/her) recently graduated with honors in anthropology from Whitman College. She has proudly served on the copy staff for her school's "littlest" literary magazine, quarterlife. Two photographs and one poem of hers have been published in said magazine. She now lives & works in the California Bay Area, and you can find her online at https://vmhelmer.wixsite.com/my-site.
