Homer, The Iliad, Book XII, trans. A. S. Kline

I’ve spent decades (two) making oddly specific lists of possible glimpses into a hidden world. Over the past few weeks, I’ve curated a glimpse into my glimpses; 333 mysterious, commonplace, and bizarre signs that might be worth a closer look. If anything here points you to a wonderland of personal superstition (or if nothing ever does), I want to know more.

1. Abandoned shopping cart denting a car

2. Abnormally bitter cucumber

3. Abrupt chill in summer

4. Abrupt metallic taste

5. Accidental overseasoning

6. Alley with a view

7. Angry hornet holding a grudge against you

8. Animal crossing

9. Anonymous act of generosity

10. Ant in a bathtub

11. Arch of branches forming a natural tunnel

12. Attending a festival where the main event gets canceled

13. Award or certificate with a typo

14. Baby born during a thunderstorm

15. Baby laughing through the vows at a christening

16. Baby possum clinging to a stray cat

17. Baby walking early

18. Bad haircut

19. Bananas tasting spicy

20. Being followed by a wounded bird

21. Beware of dog

22. Big rip on a sleeve

23. Bird baiting fish with food

24. Bird digging for food with a stick

25. Bird flying into a window

26. Bird singing at your window

27. Birthday candle relighting after being blown out

28. Biting into a fishbone

29. Biting your cheek while chewing

30. Black chicken with a single white feather

31. Blood moon

32. Boulder with a face

33. Bouquet wilting overnight

34. Brand-new knife that’s dull

35. Breaking a coconut into perfect halves

36. Brightly colored bird against a dull background

37. Broken gravestone

38. Broken mirror

39. Broken ruler

40. Broken zipper

41. Bumblebee circling your head

42. Buried radio that still works

43. Burning food on the first day in a new home

44. Burning white clothes with an iron

45. Button sewn on and lost in the same day

46. Cairn in the middle of a river

47. Car trouble

48. Cat sensing a visitor

49. Caterpillar crawling across your shoe

50. Cattle blocking a busy road

51. Certainty something lost would return

52. Certainty you are exactly where you should be

53. Chance encounter with a butterfly that’s your favorite color

54. Chicken feather pattern changing after molting

55. Child talking to an empty chair

56. Church bells chiming from a church with no bells

57. Cloud with a perfectly round hole in the center

58. Coming across a rooster that can’t crow

59. Coming across a stray dog asleep in the middle of a dark road

60. Coming across a white squirrel in a city park

61. Coming across an ant death spiral

62. Contagious laughter on the subway

63. Crutch going missing after recovery

64. Cup handle breaking off

65. Cup of tea that won’t cool down

66. Customer service rep whispering over the phone

67. Dead animal on a doorstep

68. Dead end

69. Dead hornet in an unopened wine bottle

70. Dead tree with a single living branch

71. Dead watch ticking again when passed on as a gift

72. Déjà vu

73. Dinner reservation missing

74. Discounted item marked damaged working perfectly

75. Distant train whistle after midnight

76. Do not enter

77. Dog barking at nothing

78. Double rainbow

79. Dough refusing to rise

80. Downtown street empty at rush hour

81. Dropped knife pointing at you

82. Dropping chinaware

83. Dropping your phone while angry texting

84. Dust devil crossing a street and vanishing

85. Ear piercing closing up all at once

86. Echo sounding different from what you said

87. Egg with no yolk

88. Eight peas in a pod

89. Elderly person cycling on a tricycle

90. Elevator skipping your floor

91. Elevator stopping on a mystery floor

92. Employees only

93. Escaped zoo animal

94. Estate sale where nothing sells

95. Everyone on the bus wearing a hat

96. Exit only

97. Extremely bright crescent moon

98. Falling rocks

99. Family of birds nesting in your ceiling

100. Favorite song playing on a short taxi ride

101. Fern-shaped frost across an entire window

102. Finding a heart-shaped stone

103. Finding a mystery key in a new home

104. Finding artwork you forgot you made

105. Finding old letters in a new home

106. Firefly making circles around you

107. First aid kit missing the exact item you need

108. First visit to a store falling on its last day in business

109. Fish inside fish

110. Five-leaf clovers

111. Flower blooming out of season

112. Flowers covering a hillside overnight

113. Forgetting a promise

114. Forgetting to wear a second earring

115. Fortune cookie fortune

116. Frog riding a snake across a lake

117. Frog sitting on the doorstep in the rain

118. Full solar eclipse on your birthday

119. Futile search for a very specific snack

120. Garden hose bursting

121. Getting a hotel room with a view of a wall

122. Getting attacked by a white crow

123. Getting attacked by an owl

124. Getting called the wrong name several times in a day

125. Getting every crossword clue

126. Getting trapped in a revolving door

127. Getting waved through a checkpoint without questions

128. Geyser erupting on a suburban lawn

129. Gift from a stray animal

130. Goat on a roof

131. Goldfish swimming in circles without stopping

132. Good Samaritan encounter

133. Goosebumps on just one arm

134. Grocery bag ripping

135. Growing extra teeth

136. Grumpy cat instantly befriending a dog

137. Halo around a streetlamp in the fog

138. Halo around the moon

139. Hammer bending nails every single time

140. Healthy branch mysteriously breaking off a tree

141. Hearing thunder on a clear day

142. Hearing your name in an empty room

143. Help wanted

144. Heron on a lamppost

145. Hollow baobab sheltering antelopes

146. Honeybee drinking from a spoon at a café

147. Hopping over a broom

148. Hotel hallway seeming to change length

149. Hotel room covered in ladybugs

150. Howling in the distance

151. Huge flock of crows gathering

152. Hummingbird trapped indoors

153. Ill-timed power outage

154. Insomnia

155. Invitation arriving after the event

156. Item falling into the elevator shaft

157. Item falling through a hole in your pocket

158. Joke falling flat at the beginning of a speech

159. Judge’s gavel missing the block

160. Keep right

161. Keys in the fridge

162. Kite string snapping

163. Lake changing color overnight

164. Learning your certificate of authenticity is fake

165. Lemon with seeds sprouting inside

166. Live worm in a strawberry

167. Lobby with a single chair

168. Lone cow watching you

169. Losing an heirloom

170. Losing one sock

171. Losing your license on the day it expires

172. Lost luggage

173. Luck with parking

174. Lost wallet returned before you noticed it was missing

175. Migrating birds veering off in a different direction

176. Misdelivery

177. Moonbeam shining into a dark room

178. Moth on a gravestone

179. Motivational poster repeatedly falling off the wall

180. Multiple people sneezing at once

181. Multiple wall clocks dying at the same time

182. Museum exhibit under construction mistaken for a showroom

183. Music from a toy with no batteries

184. Mysteriously dead plant

185. Neon sign spelling a different word after one letter dies

186. Nestless baby bird indoors

187. New growth on a tree stump

188. New Year’s Eve crowd losing track of the countdown

189. Night sky clearing up suddenly

190. No trespassing

191. No turn on red

192. Nosebleed

193. Not finding a bird you can hear clearly

194. Off-season cicada buzz

195. One finger twitching on its own

196. One-way

197. Open umbrella indoors

198. Order canceled without explanation

199. Out of order

200. Oven mitt catching fire

201. Owl in a bus shelter during a storm

202. Palm itching

203. Paper plane returning to you

204. Pedestrian crossing

205. Pen running out of ink mid-signature

206. Perfectly circular sinkhole

207. Pet detecting illnesses

208. Pet knowing the day of a vet visit

209. Pet missing

210. Phone dying as a call gets heated

211. Pillar staying warm on a cold day

212. Pink sky reflected in every puddle on the street

213. Pot in a tree with a bird’s nest inside

214. Potluck with too many of the same dish

215. Praying mantis on a windowsill

216. Pressed flower falling out of a book

217. Raccoon washing its food

218. Radio turning itself on

219. Raindrops falling from a clear blue sky

220. Raindrops making music on an uncovered street piano

221. Receiving two identical gifts from two unconnected people

222. Recurring dream

223. Repeating a Freudian slip

224. Ring of mushrooms around a tree

225. Ring slipping off

226. Road blocked by a toppled tree

227. Road closed

228. Rose growing without thorns

229. Rumbling thunder on the last note of a hymn

230. Running into a childhood neighbor on another continent

231. Salesperson fervently talking you out of a purchase

232. Same person mentioned in three unrelated conversations

233. Satellite dish pointing at a wall

234. Scar itching throughout the day

235. Seeing an earthworm on a sunny day

236. Sharing a scar with an antique sculpture

237. Sheep standing in a circle

238. Shocking raise

239. Shocking rejection

240. Shooting star

241. Siblings with a shared birthmark

242. Sick cattle

243. Sleep talking

244. Sleeping soundly on your first night somewhere unfamiliar

245. Snail on a door handle

246. Snake in a garage

247. Sneezing more than three times

248. Sneezing three times

249. Sofa on the highway

250. Spiderweb across a doorway

251. Spiderweb appearing overnight inside a car

252. Spontaneous recollection of a nursery rhyme in full

253. Spoon falling from a table

254. Spotless guinea fowl

255. Spotting a duck riding a wave into the harbor

256. Spotting a white peacock flying

257. Spotting an eye-shaped knot in a branch

258. Spotting the moon at noon

259. Spreading a yawn across a room

260. Starling murmuration

261. Starting a petition no one signs

262. Static shock from shaking a specific person’s hand

263. Steamed mussel refusing to open

264. Stepping on a crack

265. Stepping on a snail

266. Still pond in the middle of a storm

267. Stone wall lifted by tree roots

268. Storm going around a town in its path

269. Stranger with a spare umbrella to give you in a storm

270. Strangers with matching scars from different accidents

271. Stream with warm and cold water flowing side by side

272. Stubbing your toe

273. Sudden flash of light from nowhere

274. Sudden hush in the woods

275. Sudden locust swarm

276. Sudden thick fog

277. Sudden urge to return home

278. Sudden urge to stay home

279. Sudden urge to take a different route

280. Suitcase wheel breaking

281. Sunrise framed perfectly in the window

282. Surge of tenderness for a person

283. Surprising achievement

284. Swallowing insect mid-yawn

285. Termite swarm

286. Theater curtain getting stuck halfway up

287. Tire marks on grass

288. Toaster refusing to pop

289. Trail of leaves leading somewhere

290. Tree losing all its leaves overnight

291. Treehouse collapsing

292. Triple rainbow

293. Tripping on nothing

294. Tripping over the threshold

295. Two snowmen holding hands

296. Unbroken orange peel spiral

297. Unexpected pay cut

298. Unexpected wedding invitation

299. Unexpectedly quick reply past midnight

300. Unexplainable thirst

301. Unforgettable melody from a dream

302. Unripe bananas overripening overnight

303. Unsuccessful crowdfunding

304. Unusually seedy orange

305. Upholstery stain never coming out

306. Urban coyote encounter

307. Very heavy dew

308. Video call freezing mid-laugh

309. Vulture on a church spire

310. Vuvuzela sound in the distance

311. Waiter getting entire order wrong

312. Walking under a ladder

313. Wearing the same outfit as a mannequin

314. Weeds with colorful flowers

315. Well-behaved dog barking uncontrollably at one person

316. Well-worn trail in an uninhabited place

317. Wet floor

318. Whiff of chlorine out of nowhere

319. Whiff of tobacco out of nowhere

320. Whistling at night

321. White horse with a single black patch

322. Wild animal wandering into a chapel

323. Wildfire smoke draining the color from the sun

324. Wildflower growing sideways out of a wall

325. Wine spill at a wedding

326. Winning a raffle

327. Winning trust from stray cats

328. Woodpecker creating a rhythm

329. Wound healing overnight

330. Written message in the margins of a cookbook

331. Wrong way

332. Yard sale item with your initials

333. Your footprints disappearing behind you

There’s a growing crack in the back wall
of our centuries-old family house
through which the cold air outside has never entered
The air inside has always been warm

There’s also a cabinet our forefathers passed down
with carvings of the moths outside
The ones that shape the moon with their whirring
and stop time from passing

Before he lost his mind
one relative drew maps
showing where the house’s windows
were easiest to break

Another relative disappeared
after claiming to know
why our vizsla hasn’t died
after centuries in human years

They searched for this relative for weeks
checking every corner of the house each morning
while the dog would remain soundly asleep
in his spot beneath the kitchen table

I crawled down there to join him one morning
and the dust on his copper coat made me sneeze
so violently that the back of my head
bucked the table

I remembered something I had forgotten

Not thinking she had woken me
my missing grandmother kissed my head
and crept through the house in the dark
The vizsla waited by the growing crack in the back wall

He showed her an easy way to sneak out
into the cool air and peaceful night
He snuck back in through the crack before dawn
covered in moth dust from outside time

There is a study and sunroom
at the center of the busy roundabout in my mind
where I am struggling to concentrate

There is an itch on my scalp that I can’t scratch
because I clenched my hands
into fistfuls of our last time together

This was long ago
each hand is aglow now
and showing which way to go

I am out walking for hours in your direction
even when the downpour is freezing
because my fingers never grow cold

One day you heard she knew magic
Then you heard she was 300 years old
Then you saw her barking back at stray dogs
and hurling toenail clippings at motorcyclists
from the sidewalk.

After six weeks
she threw up her veiny hands
and set them on my iroko desk

She glanced around a moment

This isn’t funny anymore
I still see everything
Full head full head
Red hair red hair

My eyes were dry and starting to burn
from the sounds she was making

Blood art! Red bed! December finger!

She was screaming now

Blood red! Ripped red!
I still see everything!
You see? You see?
What haven’t I seen?

She might have said more
I might have convulsed briefly

But I remember her eyes were blank
cloudier than usual
An ancient kind of blank
I remember wondering which of us it was
that needed help

She pulled away from my desk
and gestured for me to try again
I blinked the heat away from my eyes
and held a finger to my notes

Two words out of several hundred
started glowing like embers

A sound between a yelp and a squawk
escaped the therapist
when I exhaled the words red ram

The sound made my parents
come flying through the door
She could have charged an extra half million
and they would not have cared.