Snow falls like paper pulp as we await the opening of the snail sludge bucket

Aimee dips her hand in the gloop – “mucilage” – and it splops at us in challenge

We rehome it with a yogurt cup, waggle the fingers of our jazz hands in the water

We’ve created a whole new texture of liquid & it’s like heavy water – 

                               Do you remember trying to explain it to me? You said That’s just how it is.

We crowd around Aimee like pigeons hunting crumbs 

Watch her strain the goop from the slop and couch a sheet 

Behold: soft yellow in color & texture, traumatized by a finger-touch or stray water droplet,

PAPER! made from invasive trees’ skin & held together by chemistry

                                 Someone asked how it worked, & all I thought was That’s just how it is.

Adele Ross is a College fourth-year hailing from the greater Cincinnati area who is majoring in Creative Writing and German and minoring in English. They completed the 2024 Papermaking & Book Art Winter Term project and found inspiration for this poem in the strange textures they encountered while learning the craft.