Comes a day when you saymake it all go away--You cannot stay in a placelacking grace, or recognizeyour own face in the glass--Time for hate has passed.Freak flag’s at half mast,but only for one day--After that, be on your way.In the end, you have yourselfand no one else--Yours is the love that lasts.
The once-overfrom the girl at Friendly’smust have meant wow,that womanreally rocks a short dressfor her ageand notugh, that lady’s legslook grossbecause if she couldreflect on my heart’s journeyto this ice-cream cakeshe’d observemore lost than taut thighsand smooth skin.
It’s like tossing loveinto a ravine--You labor every daybut there’s no chanceof filling it up.
Some days, your sentimentsecho back to you,depending on the vagariesof the wind.So you just keep pitching.
You grow up in a placeso small as to have uncovered earlyall of its contoursand hiding-places, none of themyour own,and yet, on a day signaling your leaveyou accept an invitationto a heretofore unknown Wildness,unexpected & electric--And everything changes.You drink because why not,tuned to voices you’d swearyou never heard before in your life,watch the way his lips puckerwhen he sings along with Jim MorrisonLove me two times, babyLove me twice today, I’m goin’ away--Well, hell, baby, I ain’t loved youeven once, yet--Join me in this stream, baby,anoint my Youth with your own,let’s make it all go awaybefore I leave this behind for good, man--Hello, I love you.
There’s a lot we can learn from childrenif we’d stop telling them what to dolong enough to hear them.
Like how to talk to a butterfly,or what it would be like if the earth’s corewere filled with cats instead of lava.
But above all, if you listen,the teaching of children is: Be kind.Speak in a kind voice. Oh, she’s kind, mama.
Be kind. Isn’t that enough?Kurt Vonnegut said kindness is the only rule.And then there’s the golden rule. Same thing.
Why do grown-ups forget to be kind?What makes us leave the simplest, kindestnotion behind, as quaint and unachievable?
If only we could greet our inner childat the moment an opposing motivation pressesand say, I learned this from you. Be kind.
Centeredas a “K”in each classLabelledon cheat Chartfor calling onCaptivatedby ChampioncharismaEvenCaptain Tortscouldn’t contain
Mrs. Hall told methat I was to bethe valedictorian of the class!Had to write a sentencefifty timesfor talking today in school.Am reading Mark Twain’sThe Innocents Abroad.It’s better than any geographyor history I ever read.
To be a childriding in a backseat,watching cornfieldsfade into drivewaysand suburban lawns,wonderingwhether it’s all Imaginaryand she’s the only onewho’s really Here--Even the car, this roadand her parentsare outside herself,so they don’t actually existif she is AloneHere.
Am mad at Carrie.Not just exactly mad,but we’re not on speaking terms.Gave Caroline a compactfor a birthday present,because I had to.She’s trying to make up.Made “B” in the Latin test.Caroline and I have “made up”after two weeks!I guess maybeI will go on some of the thingswith Russell,if he gets a boy for Caroline.Russell wrote a notesaying he loved meand things like that.I hate that kind of thing.When Russell sees me at schoolhe’s afraid to look at meand he never speaks.I don’t know what to do.Carrie and I went to Westieand got a sundae this afternoon.We do that almost every Sunday now.
Sometimes, a littlebasic sustenance is wontto really ramp upan otherwise boring day.Thanks so much for the flowers.
Pour me one more glass, lady bartenderThen I’ll take my leave, my mistress calls meTo populate the night; never-endingQuestions swirl after the fog of today--Cross-examination: How can this be?There no convincing one who’s gone astray.I wish I could escape this happenstance--(Can’t live with women & can’t kill ‘em, see?)Instead, perhaps I’ll ask my girl to dance.
A girlgoes to the hospitalfor a brain testbecause the doctorsmight want to change the pillsshe takes for seizures.They stick wiresall over her headwith what feels likebubblegumand she wonders how she’ll everget all that gum out of her hair.She doesn’t knowwhat they are measuringas their machinesstart their scribbling,but she hopes to hell it’s truethat they can’tactually read her mindbecause she can’t stopher thoughts from racingwith monstrous imaginings.
What if it were as simpleas knocking three times, blinkingrepeatedly, & clicking your heels?
You’d be on your knees, luckystars kissed-blown, dandelionsconserved instead of holding breath
Because this could be your last.
Wonder! Wonder! Wonder! Wonder! Wonder! Wonder! Wonder!Wonder! Wonder! Wonder! Wonder!
The earth is wondrous! Her people are wondrous! Her seasand trees and landscapes are wondrous!Everything is wondrous! The eyes and lips and hands are wondrous!Everyday is wondrous! Everywhere is an eternity! Everyone’sfull of wondrous ecstasy and gin-juice and cunt-power!Wondrous sweat pooling under breasts, wondrous the cock, yesespecially the cock is wondrous!The typewriter is wondrous, words flying across ether is wondrous,all the mundane shit of everymorning and everynight iswondrous, tucking kids in bed at night is wondrous!Wondrous dreams! Wondrous sleepless nights wondrous amber liquidsipped from a jelly jar wondrous!Wondrous the farmer’s market! Wondrous children on the bike path!Tasty Top Soft Serve is fucking wondrous!Wondrous the people protesting violence and tyranny! Wondrousthe students facing down tanks! Wondrous tweeting throughtear gas! Wondrous the people of Istanbul!Wondrous protests!The Internet is full of wondrous wonder!Television is wondrous! Communication is wondrous! Wondrous yourwhisper in my ear, wondrous a phone call from my father,wondrous songs handed down generations, wondrous booksof poetry passed hand to hand, wondrous Edith Bunker singingLove Can Make A Hero From A Chump!Wondrous a lecture from a child about how trash can be useful!Wonder! Wonder! Wonder! Wonder! Wonder! Wonder!Wondrous the children the love the sex the earth the super-goodnessof the soul in the face of evil the notion that lovetrumps it all!
