Tying my shoes
There comes a time when shoe-tying is serious business. High stakes. Like, I’m starting to think all my shoe-tying up till now was just about getting ready for < bends > < ties > < upright > like that.
Take off your glasses Dan
Take off your glasses Dan let the trees blur soft let the sound cotton fluff let the smell haze pulse let your thoughts melt like a plastic bag you flicked with a lighter so the words drop and splash the ground take your glasses off.
A friend’s recollection of 9/11
Post-it notes in the air. Finding his way from the east side, near Grand Central to a friend’s place in Brooklyn over the Manhattan Bridge by foot. Everyone was walking in the same direction.
No matter what sidewalk
Finding your rhythm there are familiar patterns you can scratch at to remind yourself your feet are your feet. You drag them along in new sneakers no matter what sidewalk you’re pounding it’s still those same toes.
Dad’s watch, again
I’m wearing dad’s watch again to turn my left arm into his left arm to give him an easy way to remind me how time works and that the world keeps turning, the face scratched by him, by his dad, and now me. The seconds in some kind of rush who the hell knows why.
A couple
surrounded by trees surrounded by Pittsburgh ruins that will be rebuilt dressed both in blue with just enough quirk to their style you know they put time and thought into it. Waiting for the wedding photographer and when you and your wife and daughter walk by and you say: “you are the best-dressed muggers I’ve … Read more
Your arm
A were-child a little were-girl with ponytails and a bike with a basket and bell can eat her own weight in about an hour. Which doesn’t sound like much but you know that’s more than your arm, your leg, your head.
A case
Is there a case to be made a first affirmative delivered in defense of collating those second-rate thoughts you might not see again (or even miss)? Shake them out of your hands, those drops of borrowed blue electric ink to make room in the sides of your fingers for some top-notch scribble sent down like … Read more
A beep
A beep from the phone a text from someone and why not let it sit? Perhaps it wants to sit. Maybe it will ferment or blossom decay or dissolve into a small pinch of dirt in your slacks given enough time a little time time to rest and some loving lack of attention.
Wonderful, powerful
Wonderful, powerful, important words I found today in Deuteronomy: “for our lasting good.” “Our” in this case, a people. Not a person. “Lasting,” to think past the moment. Now there — there is a phrase worth diagramming. Worth pondering, worth knitting, worth chatting about over breakfast. Worth adding harmonies to. Worth writing down. Worth being … Read more