the language of buttons

[asakiyume]

I dreamed there was a book, an Edwardian guide to the meanings of buttons, the way there are guides to the meanings of flowers. I was looking at the cover, which had lovely old lettering and slightly bad printing (colors not quite aligned). I knew without opening it that it would say what bone buttons mean, and wood, cloth-covered ones, metal ones, clay and ceramic. What it means if the pattern is a crest of arms or flowers, nautical themed or woven.


"There was a guy, the buttons on his jacket were bits of rebar from the Twin Towers, inset with Etruscan glass. I recall too that he had feather earrings. He bragged they were pinfeathers from a royal northern albatross."