Week Before Work

Frost sharp as
chin settled on shoulder

looking back
at the pelt of summer

book ruffled
beached by libraries

confiscated bliss
the hypnosis of hope

_

Nu-logisms

She has a freshly-minted teen for a sibling, so 4-year-old Nu sounds like she's in middle school too.

Truer to say she tries to sound like that. Frequently, there's a small hilarious twist somewhere. The ones we're currently enjoying:


REGULAR PHRASE                                                                  NU'S VERSION
"Blew my mind"               -------------------------------------->       It's blowing UP my mind
(EXAMPLE: Alligators in the sewers? Really Nana? That's blowing up my mind!)


REGULAR PHRASE                                                                 NU'S VERSION
"For real"                          ------------------------------------->        For real LIFE
(EXAMPLE: Uh-huh. It IS true. Alligators in the sewers. For REAL LIFE!)

Naturally, we've been going around using "that's blowing up my mind" and "for real life" with abandon. And sometimes people will look at me funny, perhaps because I'm not a native speaker and they're wondering how to let me know that that's not how you're supposed to say it...

_

Show and Tell

Your frown is a silent accordion 

playing down, standing up

standing on fierce ceremony

changing like a carousel

A big tent, this religion

its tenets intense and precise

decorous rules tricky as trapeze 

sharing everything save faith

This is the circus of our discontent 

perched at my waist, sparrow-hope 

and at bottom, on buttered tongue 

a juggle of a few thousand inherited words

-

Scoop

The gossip
leaves tracks
invisible trains
they run all night.

Everything's a window
where--enter: fear;
light is such a small
compass for a life

One day there will be...
there will be something
Today we can just cut
shit out like fingerprints


_

There (and Back Again)

Tired, waiting at the door
yet another rehearsal.
Deportations.
Surrenders--
blur

On folded legs and wheels
we've accumulated maps
for wrongs, words,
and soon--
an edge

I learn to suspect horizons
and they harbor storms
their pennant winds
find us, rush us
clean

_

Stranger

(Kids at school, Big A sleeping off a night shift, My TTR class done) I took a hike.

At minute 1:24, I saw two figures--one of whom had a strange, lopping, unsteady gait. I began prickling with wariness... Till they got closer and I could see it was a nice woman with a headband, walking her horse.

_

Half Empty

We've emptied and packed half the house... the pile of paperwork keeps growing...

_