I Think That I Am In Love

In my joy I thrust my hand into the live embers, but quickly drew it out again with a cry of pain. How strange, I thought, that the same cause should produce such opposite effects!
--Mary Shelley

Distance

I laid awake on someone else's couch last night, systematically compiling spreadsheets in my head. Pluses and minuses floating around and eventually sorted into nice and neat looking columns and rows. Even though the pluses greatly outweighed the minuses, I just couldn't believe that math; all that addition and subtraction, but still something didn't add up. Nice is nice, so is funny and smart and all that other stuff that we put on lists and scout around for. But is it enough? And if it's not, then what exactly am I looking for? How many people do I have to burn through before the thing I'm trying to get rid of finally catches flame and disappears?

Right now, I don't have much to give.

Sometimes

I feel I've got to run away.

lenses

It is not for learning or for love, these dreams and their actions. It is our way of surviving.

Hygiene

Sorting through the sale bin
with my right
hand,
looking for
something red and lacy
to match the
something red and lacy
in my left
hand.

Do you always wash your new underwear
Before wearing them around town?
Of course,
I said,
To not do so would be simply
un
civ
il
ized!

Sorry,
I said,
To the three women standing around,
eavesdropping.
Sometimes lingerie shopping just does that to me.
But,
now that I have your attention,
Would you want to know
what makes me cringe?

Every time that I buy a new toothbrush,
I push
along the perforated cardboard edge
and wearily tear
the plastic from the cardboard
of the uniform packaging
that vigilantly protects its contents from the outside world.
But,
before beginning that common routine,
I pause

To think about its story.
What do you think they do in there?
In there at the factory

I imagine some poor worker
hard up on cash, and late for work
again.

And

Again.

So, punished by the foreman,
made to scrub the tile floor
on his hands
and on his knees
methodically and
with a toothbrush.

He gets up slowly, after he's done,
and looks around.

After the manager has gone
to fix a cog in the machine,
or to tell Johnny B. to pick up the pace,
he walks over, rinses off the brush,
and slips it back
into the production line.

whistling
row row row your boat
gently down the stream
merrily merrily merrily after
life is but a dream!

And from then on, every chance he gets
he picks up a brush fresh from the line
and licks it
then watches it move on down
until it is slipped
between plastic and cardboard,
and sealed
and shipped
on down the stream.

Somehow,
after that,
I just never feel quite as minty-fresh as I used to.

Six eyes look up from the sale bin,
paused in the hunt for a Valentine’s Day treat.
Three tongues run over ninety-six teeth
And, politely, I offer them a breath mint.

one more
week
plus
one more
day

spare time
like spare tires
spare parts
spare change
spare the rod
spoil all the fun

i feel small today
so small
that i was
first splashing
then swimming
now drowning
in the tears
of a spider
crying
because she lost her place
when the wind
blew her web away

just like that
i could curl up right here
and fit into your clutched
and sweaty palm
then drift away
slowly
after
you purse your lips
blow gently
like you would
with a dandelion
make a wish
dear
now watch me go

guess who
i am
guess what
scares me
answer that
and
it
will
all
just
disappear

Art

talkinggeography and I did these together.
The top was our first, the bottom I am hanging in my freshly painted bedroom right now. They aren't very photogenic, but they're still beautiful.

Come on Everybody!

We started out following the tracks of the Sasquatch...















Then, we tried to run away to join Boxcar Betty and Utah Phillips...















But, instead, we made friends with the local wildlife...




























































And there we will live, in snow caves, eating nuts and berries...
















Happily, ever after.

'07

While others may have very particular notions of their year ahead, your diverse needs can pull you all over the map. You may be quite excited about all the possibilities and are ready to jump forward without much concern for the details. Taking the time now to think your plan through completely will certainly save you from needless headaches down the road.