From a manuscript in progress. Carson’s collection of performance pieces Float was published by Knopf in 2016.

The aunts sit along the wall in their narrow stone chairs that smell of stone polish, lemony and cold, with overtop a layer of something like celery, the aunts themselves. They sit upright, tails curled around their feet. Aunt Rob always spoke first. She had a carrying voice. Her s’s slid softly down the air. Animals differ in violence, she began. This is not a mere wrinkle, as some persist in believing, it is key to our way of life here. There…