If I assert that there is, in fact, “Nothing to see,” I immediately risk misunderstanding. That is, after all, what authorities tell you when they want you to keep moving past the scene of a crime: “Nothing to see here. Move along.” If there is nothing to see here, why look? Because we suspect that there is indeed something to see, we just can’t quite make it out. The word nothing encompasses a vast realm of meanings and objects that have been labeled—for many reasons, all of which deserve investigation—unimportant. And yet they continue to draw attention.

 

Susan Crane, Nothing Happened

alright, i sent susan a letter, a note. i have a fan shyness, ok. no big deal. i think of a letter i wrote on a goat trail up high on an island in the aegean that i intended to mail when i got back down but a gust of wind grabbed it and i watched it fly with the drop of nothing in my groin. and then a mental wave to bless it on its way.