Month: March 2009

Heart. Say it out loud: Heart. Heart. Heart. A word, said often enough, crosses over into beyond-word-land, when no meaning attaches, or meaning attaches that doesn’t belong to the original word. Heart. Hart. Hurt. Your young daughter, she of the black river-hair, comes home from school having dissected a sheep’s heart. She split it open … Continue reading (anywhere i go you go)

“We have cried for so long. Let us borrow light from the star that will appear for us tomorrow.” – Marie Luise Kaschnitz Blessings on those who in this moment are crying, and blessings on those who are laughing. Blessings on the old woman in the market who could not reach the high shelf. Blessings … Continue reading Let Us Borrow Light

Hello, San Francisco mug, third choice mug for the one small cup of perfect coffee drunk each morning at dawn.  (Why does “drunk” look wrong? Drank. Drinked. Draughted. Sipped. Savored. They all look wrong too.) The mugs cram, to the extent that they have to be double-deckered, the shelf allotted to them. No teacups pour … Continue reading Mugging

Yes, they are up there, large cat, on the wooden shelf that you will soon make your awkward jump onto. Cast your feline eyes upon  me, if you will, clumsy cat with the swaying belly, for I will gaze upon you in return with my dark and unblinking dog eyes until you feel the shame … Continue reading My Life as a Dog

On the first 60-degree day in six months, while walking with the black dog on the red leash and the black and brown and tan and white dog on the green leash, the following sights were duly noted: A small sign stuck into the ground by a large, low stone-rimmed planter: “Please.” A Corona beer … Continue reading Duly Noted

Who is this child? He is a colander-headed boy. He came into this world naked, but naked he did not stay. No, soon he was garbed in the raiment of his people, Those of Colanderness. Through the rain and snow they saunter, heads semi-protected from the elements but with plenty of holes, the better to … Continue reading He Is One of Them

The $11 that fell out of your pocket when you were in the movie theater with PG + the $20 bill found on top of the “sanitary disposal” container at the Kayuta Drive-In – $7.25 in quarters left in various gum machines around the country so as to make little children happy + $1.50 found … Continue reading The Coin of the Realm

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle. – Philo of Alexandria She is thinking today of the brokenhearted. She is thinking of them as they go about their days and the strength it took them to rise on a gray morning. She is thinking of Stanley Kunitz, who said that in … Continue reading A Prayer for the Brokenhearted

What does a chinchilla have to do with limberness, if limberness is even a word? (limberness, limbericity, limberous, limberical?) Something, no doubt, but something that is beyond my ken at the moment, fixated as I am today on words that keep coming to me, beautiful words rarely used, words that seem from another time. Limber. … Continue reading Limber

When they were little they had what they called shoe-boots. They pulled plastic bread bags over their shoe-clad feet and slid them into rubber boots lined with thick felt. Then they zipped the shoe-boots up – there was a central zipper that ran from the toes up to the top of the ankle-high boot. They … Continue reading You Can Leave Your Hat On