21.11.06
lies
Damon was a liar. He could lie about anything, anywhere, at anytime. He could lie about your grandmother coming back to life while attempting to save his own as he was close to drowning in a river with a strong current pushing him downstream. He could lie about the weather being perfect for the next three months. He could lie about the amount of fish swimming in the sea. And the problem was, everybody would believe him. He was so good at lying that even if you knew he was a liar, you would still believe him each and every time he told you a lie. Of course, he would tell you he was telling you the truth, and of course, you being the person that you are believing in the good that exists in every human heart, would believe him. And then somewhere along the way, as your plans slowly fell away because the weather wasn't perfect, or no fish were biting at the end of your fishing pole, or your grandmother was still safely dead and buried at the cemetary, you would realize that Damon was outright, the best liar in the whole wide world. And you would have no one to blame but yourself for thoroughly believing Damon's lies.
20.11.06
the sound of the jam
Excuse my sappiness for 80s music, but really, I swear, I don't spend
all my time reminiscing, just most of it. Like picking up the old sounds of
The Jam and reeling back into early 1980 when my walkman was the size of a hardback book. If music can last this long and still be relevant and absolutely good to hear after all these years, it's gotta be great. Just hearing
That's Enterainment from a scene in
Stranger Than Fiction, which was a really good story by the way, sent me searching for some old Jam tunes and this perfectly tidy collection brings back that mod, mod sound.
chocolate bar
What was going through her mind?
As my friends paraded up and down
The long dormitory
(With flashlights for spot lights
In cut-off rolled up shorts and button-down shirts
Modeling home clothes
Slipping on and off
Borrowed shoes between girls)
Starting first from the bathroom
All the way down to the end of the hall.
The smartest girl in class
Who spent evenings
After lights out
Underneath her blanket
With a flashlight
Reading
Hannibal Runs Away.
She must have ignored
Thought it all too frivolous
Girls’ stuff
She had outgrown.
As I remember the day
When the class results came in
She was a mere second or third
Someone else had been first
And she ha-rumphed off in anger
A chorus following:
"What's wrong Kelly?"Kelly Nightingale,
Who had glasses by the fourth year.
The teacher gave out chocolate bars
To the top 3
Cadbury's I remember
For how could I forget
When Kelly was off
Red-in-the-face
Mad about slipping
All I could think about
Was that I was getting a Cadbury's chocolate bar.
15.11.06
if the shoe fits
My favorite freak is at it again.
How'd you like to wear the shoe off Meldy's foot?! Or a piece of her sleeve on your shoulder – I've always had a soft spot for this out-of-this-world woman. I danced for her on airport tarmac when I was a wee girl and it was the first time that I consciously chose to wear heels and a dress without my mother making me, and it felt great! I suppose I could say Imelda was the start of my shoe addiction, and fittingly so. I don't care what anyone else says, Imelda is the best freak ever! Besides, I was in the restroom at the Manila Hilton Hotel with her once, and she was utterly charming!
empty
Now, there is only silence. The distance stretches out, meandering over thousands of miles; silent streaks of clouds spreading across sky, moving noiselessly across the vacant blue as if needing to be somewhere at a certain time. Where are the arms now, that enfold and warm? Where is the low voice that comforts and confers? The sound of someone else near, moving about, tinkering, breathing is gone. Vacancy, a space unfilled where cold air rushes to fill. Is lonliness an empty space or a longing for company? She sits by the window to wait. The hours elongating into the thin night teetering on the edge of dawn, stars fading into gathering light. She waits yet no one comes. No one displaces the enveloping cold around her as she shrinks further into herself, balling her body into its own warmth. She could wait, wait until the trees were lush with leaves again, wait until her hair reached the floor, silvery grey and twisting in unbrushed knots. She could wait by the window, in the silence, in the empty space of her heart, forever.
10.11.06
5 years and counting
One way to mark the passage of time is to look at your kid and wonder how they got so big when they were tiny little things, almost able to fit in the palm of your hand in the very beginning. Somewhere along the way, you swore and cursed, under your breath, or maybe over it during exasperating times and asked yourself what you had gotten yourself into by bringing a whole other human being into the world. Then you'd forget the cursing and the madness and just be in wonder and in awe of having created a whole other human being that you have to bring up in this maddening world. Children can amaze, frustrate and make you feel all gooey and giddy inside, all at the same time and they have this ability to do it at the most inopportune times at best. So, the only thing you can do is just love them and laugh with them and listen to their stories and everything will feel right in the world again.
Happy Birthday Dylan, the best kid in the whole wide world!
