May 2, 2008
Soldier’s Return
I come home.
On the balcony, laundry hangs on the line,
Fried sardines and cabbage sizzle in the kitchen.
My niece, Nina, almost three,
Asks if she can pee on the dog.
“No, dirty girl, go play with your toys.”
My mother strokes my broken body
With the same sand-colored hands
That spent a lifetime cutting dresses.
written 2004
May 2, 2008
Audio Help [dey-uhs eks mah-kuh-nuh, dee-uhs eks mak-uh-nuh] Pronunciation Key – Show IPA Pronunciation | 1. | (in ancient Greek and Roman drama) a god introduced into a play to resolve the entanglements of the plot. |
| 2. | any artificial or improbable device resolving the difficulties of a plot. |
]| Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006. |
May 2, 2008
Outside of the Spot on the sidewalk
an elderly woman struggles
to steady her fingers long enough
to line a quarter up with the slot.
All she wants the Buffalo News.
I drink my fancy coffee and highlight:
“reasonable person under
these circumstances.”
A few pages later I look up
and out the window she’s still there.
Fat raindrops
soaking her strips of white hair
while eyes on the ground
she searches for a lost quarter.
I’d help her out,
but I don’t have a quarter.
She looks so long I figure
she doesn’t have another.
Her tattered clothes tell me
she doesn’t have another.
I go back to the books
to learn about justice and logic.
I’d help her out,
but people might stare.
The letters on the page
blur and fade when
in the corner of my eye
she won’t leave the machine
that’s wallowed what must be
the highlight of her day.
I’d help her out,
but she doesn’t need my pity.
She reads the front page
beneath rain streaked glass
and still tries to find her quarter.
And I can’t not look.
I break a ten,
and go stand by her in the cold rain.
We talk about the missing coin
she looks surprised I noticed.
Quick glance, no quarter.
“I saw you standing here for a while,
can I give you another one?”
She smiles and thanks me.
But I want to thank her
as I learned more this afternoon
looking out the window of a coffeeshop
than in three years of law school.
May 2, 2008
echo
can you sum up
all the lost moments
trying to help
but instead
destroying the thread
of what it meant to be us?
it’s my throat tightening,
it’s your voice fading,
it’s the echos reverberating
in the hollowness
of my chest
as i ask you to walk away
that make me say,
how can you leave
when your scent
is a fresh tattoo
etched into my skin?
written 3.13.05
May 2, 2008
Catering, florists, dresses, tuxes, buying and renting an inordinate amount of things. All for one day, one event, 60 or so people.
I’ll be honest with you, our first thought was to elope. Then we thought it might be nice to have a small reception. Really casual, cook our own food, maybe a BBQ with some friends and family. That was just a step away from well, what the heck, we can have a ceremony too so folks coming in from out of town feel like it’s worth traveling hundreds of miles. And now, it’s ballooned into a full-blown wedding! It’s taken on a life of its own and the minute we turn away yells, “Feed me!”
I spend entirely too much time looking at bank statements and cringing. On the other hand, a very small, girly part of me is enjoying this chance to throw a big party to celebrate our love and commitment to each other.
May 2, 2008
It’s off to work I go. After school, the world of HR snared me and has only briefly let go once. There was a month stint as a Shipping and Receiving Clerk in a distribution warehouse. Being barked at by truckers all day was not my idea of a career. It’s amazing that some people will never know what it’s like to have to take a job to pay the bills. When I’m dragging ass with my sloth-like morningtime tendencies, I conjure up that hellish month and am able to feed the dog and fish, get dressed, and out the door.
May 1, 2008
I bought a camera last week at half price. Brand spanking new, in the box, nothing wrong with it at all! Rarely upsold, I had to cave. Yesterday I won a free dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant from dropping my business card into a bowl. What’s a streak? Three occurences? Maybe this weekend’s lottery ticket will make it a streak.
May 1, 2008
Now is the beginning of many things. Career, wedding planning, developing a hobby (armed with blog and digital camera). These follow the end of other things: school, strange relationships, and writing. Like before, woes are gone and with it went the ability to write. The reasons I’m starting a blog (again) are twofold: to capture the new, the ongoings and happenings of this whirlwind time in my life, and the revival of the old – my love of words.
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