The Patriarchy

The most embarrassing part of this post is going to be admitting that I have Air on my ipod. You know “Alpha Beta Gaga?” That Air. Most of it is inarticulate, furrin croonin,’ and I had it out on the sound dock the other day. And then "Sexy Boy" comes on. Li’l A needs another chat with me about what “sexy” means. Mostly I think because it’s an excuse to say the word ;). So I do some explaining.

And then he’s all: Promise me one thing. Promise me JUST one thing!
I have no idea what’s happening. Not a clue. But his big eyes are full of earnest intensity, so I promise.
Promise me you’ll never call anyone but dad sexy boy. Promise me.

I laughed until my stomach cramped. And then I laughed about it some more when Big A got home. And the next day, in the car, my hands free because Big A was driving, I pointed out anyone remotely attractive to Li’l A: Sexy Boy, Sexy Boy, Sexy Boy, Sexy Boy.

It’s not like it’s a bad thing.

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No kidding

Guitar Hero has a lot to answer for. It’s pretty sweet when there is an interview with Rivers Cuomo on the radio and Li’l A tells me earnestly (because I didn’t just recently live through the nineties or anything) that Weezer is a band.

And oh, that avatar? Slash? He’s a real person.

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Neighbor

I don’t know Eliza. Haven’t even met her, actually; but already, I love her.

She’s Big A’s mom’s friend’s granddaughter (who was adopted from China). She and Li’l A might be classmates in the new school year so Big A’s mom was telling her about Li’l A and that I (his mom) came from India.

Eliza reportedly got all excited: “From India? Really? Did you know... Did you know that I’m from China?”

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I have an Obama dream

I woke up when Big A leaned over me to say Good Morning to the baby (who, btw, who stares at me every morning silently, with cannibal-level passion.)

I had a dream about Obama, says I.

Big A pounces: was it a sex dream?

Kind of--I didn’t have sex with him, but my friend T was trying to get him to have sex with her younger sister N. Oh, and also, we were all at the big seaside hotel and no one seemed to recognize him as the presidential candidate at all, except for politically savvy me. What I really liked was that he had two balconies: reportedly one reserved for looking at the sea and the other one for drying his towels--very bright man that. Vote!

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A BLUE MOHAWK

In her family
they call it
the call from Colorado

the time she called from Boulder
to speak to her mother,
to say, amongst other things,

It’s just so hard to find work
when you have a blue
mohawk

It makes the mother want to
laugh, to cry
you stupid, stupid

idiot, idiot.
Instead she imagines
the daughter

walking to and fro
in the snow
looking for work

looking everywhere
for work
and being turned away.

her head twisted
a bird naked
in crested profile

Yes, she sighs,
it must be difficult
people can’t understand.

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OUR OLD HOUSE

On empty walls
light crenellates
happy scrawls

In vacant rooms
breezes waft
light laughter

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One happy camper

Li’l A is away (for the first time) at sleep-away camp.

I can’t fall asleep.


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