tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25864504203653773592024-02-19T14:31:38.796-08:00The Empty Nestrance: journal by Lenore WeissAll Gonewebgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.comBlogger188125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586450420365377359.post-39204460510857950592012-01-02T10:40:00.000-08:002012-01-22T14:11:37.330-08:00Two Places<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Louisiana, home of a thousand Family Dollar stores<br />
and cotton farms planted with corn for ethanol<br />
I think of you as I return to Oakland,</div>
<div id="post-body-3920446051085795059" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;">
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
report for jury duty with a hundred<br />
others waiting to be screened for weapons,<br />
swiping smart phones as if they could save us.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Louisiana, camouflaged in brown leaves<br />
on a breast pocket of lottery tickets and cigarettes.<br />
Another weekend I drive to my house,</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
pass a coral reef that covers the hills of San Francisco,<br />
in window panes of white waves,<br />
I'm lost in a place between two places</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
where fresh produce arrives from WalMart<br />
and everyone can be a po'boy at the gas station.<br />
Louisiana, my hand shimmers in your bayou,</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
in the Ouachita River, where grandmothers<br />
mounded themselves like almonds<br />
along barges of earth.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
A bay and a cypress and the word <em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">hosanna.</em><br />
We open doors in two places.<br />
Our hearts meet in one place.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>webgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586450420365377359.post-84470883683273442012011-11-30T22:26:00.000-08:002011-12-06T10:40:13.388-08:00Trickster<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">I want to out-run the clock, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">look up from my book, see</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;">there’s 10 minutes to throw on a pair of jeans and a sweater,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;">grab car keys from the dining room table and swing the laptop<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;">over my shoulder. Hi-ho I keep on going.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;">This morning I had two cups of coffee, watched the news,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;">spoke with my boyfriend from six states away and finished reading<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;">the newspaper. Time to tap dance on the kitchen tile,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;">unscrew energy efficient lightbulbs and note what kind of hybrid bird<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;">flies out before I grab the laptop.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">Inside the car like an otter beneath a hood of water watching</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">the sky pull itself into threads of orange taffy, my mind backstrokes<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">to Chicago and the punch press factory <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">where I met Johnnie with mahogany skin and straightened hair<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">and Eola from New Orleans who said:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i>Life's like powder on a powder puff, just ready to blow off,</i><span style="font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">when a lugging machine punched a hole through my finger<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">and the foreman delivered me to the hospital where I spent the evening<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">filling out worker's compensation forms and didn’t make my quota; <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">something about the thinness of the sky today,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">how an airplane balances on a diagonal wire of exhaust,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">or the way Chow Yun Fat did in <i>Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">walking on tree tops, which is a good trick if you know how to do it.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><br />
</div>webgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586450420365377359.post-5892951023722656082011-11-28T18:17:00.000-08:002011-11-28T19:15:08.645-08:00Charon Speaks to Psyche<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">I lived in shadow</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">along the edge of wet stairs,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">watched stone lose out<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">to the incursion of lapping insistence,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">a place where I gathered myself, a sensation<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">of cold and sometimes not so cold, even warm<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">as sun bullied its way through iron railings.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Which way?</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> I heard myself ask,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">no longer a barnacle stationed for eternity</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">at some breathing crack<br />
I was never going to leave.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I grew up as the Gatekeeper,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">the one who ferries shadows across the chasm,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">back and forth I watched men and women,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">lips drawn into a horizon as they dredged fear<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">from a bucket of cold blood, <o:p></o:p>while I, </div><div class="MsoNormal">who knew the water like the back of my hand,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">sang a dirge and understood how some things can only be faced.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Never have I spoken until you bordered my craft,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">etching rivulets with your finger across the saw-toothed waves,</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">consumed by a hope that toys with us all and makes fools famous.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charon_(mythology)" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charon_(mythology)</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.goddessgift.com/goddess-myths/greek_goddess_psyche.htm" target="_blank">http://www.goddessgift.com/goddess-myths/greek_goddess_psyche.htm</a></div></div>webgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586450420365377359.post-84405544894498117182011-11-13T15:30:00.000-08:002011-11-27T09:10:42.411-08:00Ode to Oaktown<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span id="goog_1922283792"></span><span id="goog_1922283793"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a>I wired my sorrows into Klieg lights and let them shine all over Oakland,<br />
city of <a href="http://www.marxists.org/history/usa/workers/black-panthers/" target="_blank">Black Panthers</a> and <a href="http://www.hellsangelsmcoakland.com/" target="_blank">Hells Angels</a> and <a href="http://libcom.org/library/oakland-general-strike-stan-weir" target="_blank">General Strikes</a>,<br />
driving from the Bronx in a green Toyota Corolla searching.<br />
<br />
Was it freedom, or a film I wanted to make something of myself,<br />
took refuge in Oakland's Lake Merritt, caught breadcrumbs and fish,<br />
a wayfarer dressed in boots and dreams of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Avenue_Vietnam_Peace_Parade_Committee" target="_blank">Fifth Avenue Peace Parades</a><br />
<br />
to a West Coast of two-story buildings and pastel houses<br />
and summers where the sun did not bother to get up until noon.<br />
<i>Okay,</i> I said to myself, <i>you have to begin somewhere.</i> That was my beginning.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.raiders.com/history/index.html" target="_blank">Oakland Raiders</a> won the SuperBowl.<br />
I sailed a stroller around Lake Merritt and through her Garden Center,<br />
past houses with calla lillies that hugged grey gas meters<br />
<br />
even though they were ugly. Oakland took off her clothes slowly<br />
like a woman who wants to know she is loved. I followed her trail in Joaquin Miller<br />
filled with monkey flowers and second growth redwoods,<br />
<br />
nuggets of neighborhoods and librarians, the <a href="http://museumca.org/" target="_blank">Oakland Museum</a><br />
surrounded by a moat of golden koi where children entered into culture,<br />
art, and people who hung on walls together.<br />
<br />
Let me park my car one last time and walk to the <a href="http://www.paramounttheatre.com/" target="_blank">Paramount</a>,<br />
remember old hotels and faded curtains stuck on brass rings,<br />
where restaurants and condos have become the hope of a business community<br />
<br />
that wishes for homicides to fade like fog,<br />
a place I've come to know with gunshots and fireworks,<br />
the way my history has been pressed into a new release.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://oaktownart.com/" target="_blank">Oaktown</a><br />
<a href="http://www2.oaklandnet.com/" target="_blank">City of Oakland</a><br />
<a href="http://oaklandnet.com/parks/parks/lakemerritt.asp" target="_blank">Lake Merritt</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWKn2UpaHUnFb_1MgdXqY6ZydMcaM0msHxOMBjsS8xq8zAZTZkaZAWrTJWR-11X4vANfudagpfPqTi5U7TaBs8mH5SqLmDzyZbQGzX7_bhUQkbREC7alJgaD84GK1mQp5QzsVtrMg5ce3t/s1600/butterly.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWKn2UpaHUnFb_1MgdXqY6ZydMcaM0msHxOMBjsS8xq8zAZTZkaZAWrTJWR-11X4vANfudagpfPqTi5U7TaBs8mH5SqLmDzyZbQGzX7_bhUQkbREC7alJgaD84GK1mQp5QzsVtrMg5ce3t/s200/butterly.gif" width="200" /></a></div><br />
</div>webgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586450420365377359.post-8534360966596615552011-10-25T08:00:00.000-07:002011-11-13T09:18:39.861-08:00The 99% in Crossett, Arkansas<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:DocumentProperties> <o:Template>Normal</o:Template> <o:Revision>0</o:Revision> <o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:Pages>1</o:Pages> <o:Words>126</o:Words> <o:Characters>720</o:Characters> <o:Company>wyzgyz</o:Company> <o:Lines>6</o:Lines> <o:Paragraphs>1</o:Paragraphs> <o:CharactersWithSpaces>884</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:Version>11.1539</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:DoNotShowRevisions/> <w:DoNotPrintRevisions/> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:UseMarginsForDrawingGridOrigin/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> </span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When you're in the belly of the monster<o:p></o:p></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">You don't consider if your lipgloss is sticky<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">Or if your hair spray is crunchy<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">Or how Steve Jobs, if he found himself in the same situation,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">Would've connected the dots.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">Even when distraction and evil influence rule the day,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">And the EPA is scheduled to show up at the ash pit where you eat your lunch,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">And you know that the company the contractors you work for have fungled everything,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">Financial titans who threaten to eat their own children,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">Who have tempted the spawning multitudes with their own extinction, <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">In the great red light of the world's afternoon, inside yourself<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">There's a quick change artist <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">Who can do things accidentally on purpose,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">You take a leak on the opposite side of the pond,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">Hang your goggles from a side-view mirror,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">Pray to gods of the Internet and magicians of High Hogwarts, <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">This better turn out good.<o:p></o:p></div><!--EndFragment--></span></div>webgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586450420365377359.post-55698502840015855352011-10-11T22:09:00.000-07:002011-10-18T09:11:08.923-07:00Blood Thinner<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Owner of the house. Senile. A hospice nurse milks the catheter. Packs ice cubes into his stomach pours a cool one. He starts drinking a Blood Thinner With Water. In the meantime, tenants write out checks to Malthus. A realtor for short sales and foreclosures. Karrena is a single mom who collects rent for the house and has two kids. A fish tank bubbles in every room.</div>webgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586450420365377359.post-79937762186021271992011-10-06T19:14:00.000-07:002011-10-06T19:14:32.939-07:00Just One More Thing: For Steve Jobs<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:DocumentProperties> <o:Revision>0</o:Revision> <o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:Pages>1</o:Pages> <o:Words>398</o:Words> <o:Characters>2270</o:Characters> <o:Company>Apple</o:Company> <o:Lines>18</o:Lines> <o:Paragraphs>5</o:Paragraphs> <o:CharactersWithSpaces>2663</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:Version>14.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/> <w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/> <w:OverrideTableStyleHps/> <w:UseFELayout/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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</style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <div class="MsoNormal">The lawn was trampled to mud on a rainy day when the skies appropriately opened up and poured forth unseasonal rain throughout the Bay Area; people were taking pictures with their iPhones, speaking quietly, some crying, visually moved by the death of a brilliant innovator who meant so many things to so many.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I visited 1 Infinite Loop today to see the shrine gathering there for Steve Jobs, Flowers, candles, pumpkins with writing, pictures, boxes of iPads and iPhones, free organic apples that are in the cafeteria every day for employees to take from large galvanized buckets to place on trays along with their lunch or dinner. The memorial included many Apples with a bite removed, all of us Eve in search of knowledge. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I work at Apple as a long-term contractor in a group that earlier in the week was getting ready for the launch of the latest “black box” project. Vaguely, like many I assumed it was about introducing the iPhone 5 to the world. The media decried the substitution of a more powerful iPhone 4S for the really big announcement. Nice phone, but so what? <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The next day I was notified by my group not to drive down to Cupertino from Oakland because the area was swarming with police officers and SWAT team members who were hunting Shareef Allman. Allman had gone on a rampage following a safety meeting at a local quarry, and had killed three people and wounded six, a single father whom all his neighbors and friends said hated violence and produced a local cable show about conflict resolution. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Fast forward to the afternoon when I received the email from the manager of our group, “This is a sad day for Apple…”<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I fell back down on my couch. It was a moment in my life similar to the time when I saw scribbled on a blackboard, “President Kennedy has been shot.” While everyone knew that Steve was seriously ill and had stepped down as CEO in August, the news hit me in the gut.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">This is was a person of my generation, someone whom I as far as I could tell, had helped to shape the idealism and revolutionary spirit of the sixties with his own sense of purpose. I saw so many who had worked toward peace and justice in the civil rights and anti-war movement, sign on to a new cause that offered communication and a collective ethic as opposed to the stultifying hierarchy that had held this country in a top-down grip. This was “counter-culture.”<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Jobs understood that creativity comes from people working together. He helped to foster that environment. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It took me years to be able to work at Apple. Thank you, Steve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For everything.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><!--EndFragment--></div>webgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586450420365377359.post-23128008344143705782011-09-07T07:58:00.000-07:002011-11-07T17:30:56.713-08:00Grandmother's Tattoo 6<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">She listens to his notes dapple the cottonwoods<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">with sadness and laughter that reaches <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">toward outstretched leaves.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">When Mew finally raises his face from the chin rest,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">he signals with his bow toward her.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">She must play her part and find Section P.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">She says good-bye and walks, the same way he told her, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">alongside a rock wall covered with moss.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Her gold hoop earrings play hide-and-seek in her dark hair.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">She doesn’t want to get lost.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">What if she meets her grandmother?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Will she be angry at Maggie for losing the tattoo?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">The stone wall keep winding around. Stone steps go down.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">There is a woman whose skin is the color of moonlight.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times;">In shopping aisles of the dead, </span></i><span style="font-family: Times;">she says,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">waving her fingers at a swarm of fruit flies,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times;">some of us get marked up and some of us get marked down. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times;">We all get buried in the same store.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Now that’s what I call a bargain!<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Grandmother?</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Maggie?</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Her grandmother’s silver hair is</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> stuck at the back of her neck with bees.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Life is a seasoning that tenderizes us,</span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times;">breaks down our rough edges so we can bend. </span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><i><span style="font-family: Times;">Come closer. Tell me how you’ve been.</span></i></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Maggie traveled this far on her skateboard to get some place,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">goes there now.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Maggie says her mom died several years ago. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Dad is gone for most of the time, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">sits in a restaurant and drinks wine.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Worst of all, Maggie has lost grandma’s tattoo.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Does grandma fill up like a water balloon and burst?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Instead she explains how during the war, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">she buried herself beneath a haystack and escaped, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">tattooed numbers above her wrist. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Until the other day when a messenger boy <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">gave her the same tattoo. That’s when numbers joined each other like Siamese Twins and shared bloodlines.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Where each number began and the other stopped,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">stuck together like teeth to candy. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Grandma scooped something from the dirt,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">fixed it above Maggie’s ankle.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">No numbers in the red.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i><span style="font-family: Times;">One world.</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Times;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="font-family: Times;">There on her ankle, a glowing orb.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="font-family: Times;">No countries, boundaries.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times;">My granddaughter, tell them.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div></div></div></div>webgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586450420365377359.post-74779859209752386112011-08-23T11:54:00.000-07:002011-09-07T07:54:45.881-07:00Grandmother's Tattoo 5<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1d1d1d;"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:DocumentProperties> <o:Revision>0</o:Revision> <o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:Pages>1</o:Pages> <o:Words>301</o:Words> <o:Characters>1716</o:Characters> <o:Company>Apple</o:Company> <o:Lines>14</o:Lines> <o:Paragraphs>4</o:Paragraphs> <o:CharactersWithSpaces>2013</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:Version>14.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/> <w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/> <w:OverrideTableStyleHps/> <w:UseFELayout/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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</style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1d1d1d;"><span style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Times;">Facing west, there are aisles through gravestones.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1d1d1d;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Times;">Everywhere, the same thing, cottonwoods blazing yellow. </span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Times;">A peacock sweeps the ground with his tail.</span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i><span style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Times;">Hi-ho, </span></i><span style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Times;">he says,<i> </i>and flutters his fanny.</span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Times;">Maggie thinks this is a 3-D animation </span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Times;">or maybe the Pasty Lump Lady with more tricks.</span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Times;">His reedy voice is like a clarinet's. </span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Times;">Maggie misses her grandmother's tattoo,</span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Times;">the only remnant that remains of her family,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Times;">her one connection stolen by a boy<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Times;">with eyes the color of melting honey.</span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Times;">Or does she miss the boy?</span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial;">I'm lost,</span></i><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial;"> she explains,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial;">gestures toward the broken skateboard,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial;">and I’m on foot.</span></i><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial;">The peacock extracts a long feather from his tail.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial;">My gift to a girl, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial;">guaranteed to get you wherever you need to go.</span></i><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial;">He swishes his feathers and disappears into the yellow cottonwoods.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Maggie waves the feather and hopes for magic. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Nothing doing.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">She wants to return to a delta of square one,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">to pop-up from the middle like a seed from a plum. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">But the Pasty Lump Lady has stolen her hunger.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Even so, there’s more to Maggie than pancakes.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><br />
At the intersection of Sections I and M, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">vines cling to trees like long lost relatives.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">In another part of the graveyard, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">the sun burns a hole in an apron and busts out.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Maggie draws warmth around her like a cashmere sweater.<br />
She accidentally drops the skateboard to the ground. A chase. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">In Section C, she finds the skateboard.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">There’s a boy playing a fiddle, his face as white as a ruffled shirt.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">The fingerboard has a ketchup label, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">the fiddle, Norwegian Codfish.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">He says his name is Bartholomew, Mew for short, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">sees the feather, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">and tells her he used to play softball with the peacock. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times;">And you?</span></i><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Maggie of the Misfit Foot.</span></i><span style="font-family: Times;"> She tells him everything.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">He not so much.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times;">I rescue music from garbage heaps. That’s all,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times;">and begins to walk away.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">She wants him to stay, offers the skateboard as a sacrifice. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">And like a man about to buy a new car, he considers--<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Solid wood. Gold rims. No financing. Sweet.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times;">He plays the fiddle until his music fills the grove with sunlight.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><!--EndFragment--></span></div>webgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586450420365377359.post-24339900895145218052011-08-11T22:55:00.000-07:002011-08-23T00:37:18.517-07:00Grandmother's Tattoo 4Chewing on words like camp, railroad, gold teeth.<br />
<br />
<i>Little snot go wipe your nose</i><br />
<i>or Mr. Potato Head will plant a carrot between your toes.</i><br />
<br />
She wakes up to a day that is half night,<br />
morning throws off a purple bathrobe.<br />
<br />
Birch trees point trunks<br />
like arthritic fingers in different directions.<br />
<br />
Hungry. She combs her hair with two fingers,<br />
jumps on the skateboard to hunt for breakfast.<br />
<br />
Mountains breathe an ancient cold in her face,<br />
which makes her think of pancakes,<br />
<br />
yeasty bubbles erupting from a warm skillet<br />
with the sweet smell of maple syrup.<br />
<br />
She steers down an aisle hoping to find a food court,<br />
bends her knees and waves her hands, a thrasher,<br />
<br />
leans toward a clearing with white tents<br />
surrounded by grave markers and live peacocks.<br />
<br />
Her gold wheels screech to a halt. A woman<br />
whose flesh is attached to her arms in pasty lumps<br />
steps out to meet her.<br />
<br />
Maggie throws caution through a window, and breaks silence.<br />
She asks for food.<br />
<br />
<i>So. Hungry Girl got money?</i><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><br />
</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Maggie is only a poor girl without an allowance</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">who happens to be hungry.</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">And why is hunger, she asks herself, </div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">not its own winning argument?</div></div><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">She knows the only thing her fingers will find is lint.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">She digs inside her pocket anyway.<br />
Her hand strikes an empty seam bed.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #262626;"><i>Not so fast</i></span><span style="color: #262626;">, says the Pasty Lump Lady.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Not so Lackawanna Railroad.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">She says if Maggie dislocates a wheel from its axle<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">and gives it to the Pasty Lump Lady, breakfast will be served.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Pasty Lump Lady steals Maggie’s hunger.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">She feeds her </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">pancakes, eggs, syrup, until it is time to fold up shop,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">uses the glint from the gold wheel </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">to wrap sunlight inside her apron.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It was daylight just a few moments ago. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Maggie's mind </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #262626; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">is a basket filled with broken stuff.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">She stuffs the skateboard under her arm.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #262626;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Time to pack up what she jumped off.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div>webgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586450420365377359.post-17286204984290802872011-08-07T17:46:00.000-07:002011-08-17T11:41:52.973-07:00Grandmother's Tattoo 3<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Yoo-hoo! </i><i>Girlie!</i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>What's the big rush </i><i>like you've got a date </i><i>or something?</i></span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>There's no one here to give you </i><i>the right time of day,</i></span><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and in case you're wondering,</span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm the voice of the graveyard,</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">alive, but not in your 1-2-3. Capice?</span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So much for introductions.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So much for this and that.</span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let's get real and nail the coffin.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You're Maggie of the misfit foot.</span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here's what to do:</span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Under the lidless eyeball of the sun,</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">keep riding until you find Section P. </span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When you hear a kid</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">playing music from a garbage pile,</span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">take his hand and he'll help you find your Granny.</span></i><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That was it? Really?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To trust a voice echoing through leaves?</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Somewhere a railroad car screeched to a halt.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Or maybe it was a dog barking.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Soft smell of cypress.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Maggie rolled the skateboard beneath her head.</span><br />
<br />
A handbook<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> of dreams wheeled her away</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"> S<i>nowberries attract birds</i> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><i>and require little water.<br />
</i><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">At an airport security check:</span></span><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"> Everyone must remove all belts and empty pockets.<br />
</span></span> <br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">A host asked during a game show:</span><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"> What do most people want to see when they die?</span></i></span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">There is a light above her head.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">She never asked to be here,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">alone as the tongue in her mouth.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span></span></span></span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"> <i> God.</i></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span>webgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586450420365377359.post-21628191724295411382011-08-06T19:45:00.000-07:002011-08-15T08:43:09.979-07:00Grandmother's Tattoo 2<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Would she rather be at the shopping mall checking out clearance racks</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">than sailing on this red shoe of a skateboard moving her closer to the abyss,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">not that Maggie knew what the abyss looked like.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Maybe a new department store where designer clothes </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">were scattered </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span">higgledy-piggledy on tables</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">, </span>not even hangers.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>The Abyss. </i></span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Forget shopping. Right now in this moment,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the first order of business, </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">to rescue her grandmother's tattoo</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">from the hands, calves, or chest of that buffoon</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">who had absolutely swept her off her feet,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">only to abandon Maggie to an off-duty traffic cop</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">who hoarded skateboards.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Now she was inside her own video game,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">her hands </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">clammy with a thin coat of luck.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">On her left, </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">she saw a mountain as sharp as a swear word,</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">and sailed her carpet</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> to its widow's peak,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">looked down once again, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">saw the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>tabula rasa</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">where </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">in former times, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">her grandmother's tattoo</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">had encircled her ankle. Now r</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">obbed, bare, uncertain,</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Maggie felt she was </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the last live link in a line of women, </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">who had arrived here</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And where was here?</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">She heard an old woman's voice,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Your eyes are open like a cow on the hillside.</i></span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">All she could see was a slope </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">covered in a tureen </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">of red autumnal leaves</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">marked by several hundred monuments</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">pimpled with rocks.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span>webgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586450420365377359.post-71414864705488604742011-07-27T20:44:00.001-07:002011-08-17T11:40:06.219-07:00Grandmother's Tattoo<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Maggie stares at the tattoo <o:p></o:p><span class="Apple-style-span">on her ankle</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the same moment<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">a boy with a baseball cap<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">hoists her <span class="Apple-style-span">on his skateboard.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Her breasts are buttoned to his back.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Who is he?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Together they speed past car door handles.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A stop at a traffic signal turns purple.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">She looks down.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The tattoo--<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Where is it?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Gone and so is he.</span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Before coming to occupy </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the bone of <span class="Apple-style-span">her ankle,</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the tattoo first appeared <span class="Apple-style-span">on her grandmother,</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">a woman who kept truth near,</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">until </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the tattoo </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span">peeled loose from her foot</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">with the crazy-glue of family history.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Theft.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">She wants an officer to file a report.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Get someone to draw a character sketch.<i> </i><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 76.0pt; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Post the picture with the tattoo <span class="Apple-style-span">on the Internet.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Instead, an off-duty cop slides a board beneath her feet,</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">confiscated </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">from some young punk, </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span">points out its gold rimmed wheels </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">and rhinestone studs.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span">He told her to handle the board </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">like a certificate of completion </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">and to go forth.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Before she could say </span><i>Harry Potter</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">she'd zoomed past several fire hydrants.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The board had its own life and she was gaining balance,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">everything coming quickly.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Tomorrow is today.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <i>Bunk.</i></span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Office of the Alternate Defender.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <i>As long as you have dinero. </i></span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i> </i> Isle of Silk.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <i>Baklava.</i></span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">All the time she was growing up,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">her mother had sunk the tattoo </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">at the bottom of a </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">couscous </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">jar. </span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Mom didn't know how to wear the tattoo,</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">and now Maggie, its legitimate heir,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">had become victim of some freaky tattoo marauder </span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">who'd galloped away in the night like a bridegroom</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">kidnapper </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">without an amber alert.</span><br />
<br />
</div>webgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586450420365377359.post-12630689988115354712011-07-12T09:00:00.000-07:002011-07-12T09:00:09.008-07:00Discovering Jay-Z<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><!--StartFragment--> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> <i>Decoded</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> is a book about music that’s a work of art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The inside cover describes it as “A collection of lyrics and their meanings that together tell the story of a culture, an art form, a moment in history, and one of the most provocative and successful artists of our time.” </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The artist in question is Shawn Corey Carter, better know by his stage name Jay-Z, hip-hop artist and entrepreneur par excellence. By the time this reader turned the last page, there was a desire to pile up more nouns like philosopher, political scientist, spiritual seeker, communicator, and poet-in-universal residence. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Everything about <i>Decoded</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> is filled with intentionality. This includes its cover, layout, notes, and graphic art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The front jacket image, </span><i>Rorschach</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, is by legendary pop artist, Andy Warhol, and the back cover by Jonathan Mannion who took pictures for Jay-Z’s </span><i>Reasonable Doubt</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> album, and who since then has made a career of photographing hip-hop artists.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Reading<i> Decoded</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> is a textural experience that alternates between Jay-Z’s lyrics appended with footnotes that are filled with explanations about poetic decision-making, to photographs and illustrations of people who are key to the overall story. Add illustrations, disc covers, and a typography that contributes to an overall rap feeling, borrowing from different places and art forms and piling them on in one place to a strong beat.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Like many of my generation (boomer), race (white), and gender (female), I have assiduously avoided rap for its misogyny, violence of language, and use of the <i>n-word. </i><span style="font-style: normal;">As a friend of mine once asked, “Would you want your own child to listen to that language?” But the reality is that young people everywhere listen to rap. It is the music and poetry of what is now an international generation, which is why this book is important; it goes directly to rap’s emotional roots.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The opening pages of<i> Decoded</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> serve up a view of the Marcy Houses projects in Brookyn’s Bed-Sty area with pathways connecting twenty-seven six-story buildings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this labyrinth of tunnels and benches, Jay-Z describes how the rapper and the hustler blend together and how the beat is everywhere.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“It’s been said that the thing that makes rap special, that makes it different both from pop music and from written poetry, is that it’s built around two kinds of rhythm. The first kind of rhythm is the meter. In poetry, the meter is abstract, but in rap, the meter is something you literally hear: it’s the beat.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Reading <i>Decoded</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, I understood how some rap, called by Chuck D, “the CNN of the ghetto,” could be understood as </span><i>work songs</i><span style="font-style: normal;">. By that I mean stories of making a living through hustling, selling crack and walking the tightrope of police and dealers and drive-by shootings without. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Jay-Z writes, “This is why the hustler’s story—through hip-hop—has connected with a global audience. The deeper we get into those sidewalk cracks and into the mind of the young hustler trying to find his fortune there, the closer we get to the ultimate human story, the story of struggle, which is what defines us all.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Through Jay-Z’s songs, we follow his metamorphosis from street hustler to rap artist who wants to win at the game. And not only do we get to read his story. The book provides us with a snapshot history of rap in the eighties and nineties. Reading these lyrics is to see how rhymes flow and connect and change. It’s an appreciation of rap’s artistry. Jay-Z’s footnotes, which explain specific references and street lingo, also illustrate his awareness as a poet who layers meanings with deliberate word choices, using line breaks, repetition, and references to cultural icons, and relating stories embedded within other stories that reverberate inside the beat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In “This Can’t Be Life” with Beanie Sigel and Scarface on the <i>Dynasty</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> album, Jay-Z explains how Scarface received a call in the recording studio telling him that a friend had just lost one of his kids in a fire. But art is survival.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Scarface continued the recording session and the end of the song reads like this:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Lovin your kids just like you was ours / And I’m hurtin for you dog; but ain’t nobody pain is like yours / I just know that heaven’ll open these doors / and Ain’t no bright side to losin life; but you can view it like this / God’s got open hands homey, he in the midst of good company / Who loves all and hates not one / And one day you gon’ be wit your son…”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The Epilogue is unexpected. Jay-Z recounts his meeting with Oprah Winfrey who had voiced her skepticism in the past about hip-hop “particularly the use of what she’d call the ‘n-word.’” </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">While Jay-Z muses upon the fact that Oprah has championed Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison who also use violent and raw images,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>he writes ,“To her, it’s a matter of acknowledging the deep and painful history of the word. To me, it’s just a word, a word whose power is owned by the user and his or her intention…The key is to change the person. And we change people through conversation, not through censorship.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Decoded</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> is also available in a downloadable version., complete with videos and interviews. <a href="" name="_GoBack"></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Jay-Z, you’ve made a new convert.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Decoded by Jay-Z, Spielgel & Grau (a division of Random House), New York, 2010,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>308 pgs, $35.00<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><!--EndFragment--> <br />
<!--EndFragment-->webgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586450420365377359.post-64867035349646165262011-06-25T15:55:00.000-07:002011-08-10T22:45:31.641-07:00The Widow Discovers the Secret of Leona Canyon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWXc7sRMEKQB2Ouy5ABLMbnRypsHeJ3ixsfJt0swH4b9I7j9eO1jK-hmCvsqRB4j3m86r285LG8pbiTWNMdcjvqAOKRJpSodugzy-A0wZZI-cyvPnXUN4l0OBGCV8BanZmMmH-mHBiCEGg/s1600/DSC00329.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWXc7sRMEKQB2Ouy5ABLMbnRypsHeJ3ixsfJt0swH4b9I7j9eO1jK-hmCvsqRB4j3m86r285LG8pbiTWNMdcjvqAOKRJpSodugzy-A0wZZI-cyvPnXUN4l0OBGCV8BanZmMmH-mHBiCEGg/s320/DSC00329.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br />
Before dog-walkers with squadrons of panting beasts<br />
pull up in SUVs, I arrive early--a woman without a pooch<br />
who can be trusted to make a game of counting packets of shit<br />
<br />
set aside for some doggie walker's return trip.<br />
I start early, knot a hoodie around my waist,<br />
hiking in the sun I want to lose myself,<br />
<br />
balance on a branch of a buckeye tree<br />
with its candelabra of mock lilacs,<br />
walk past hemlock that lace the trail,<br />
<br />
everything is a blaze of white<br />
as spring marries summer and loosens her veil.<br />
I dip my hands in water and wash my face.<br />
<br />
Anna's hummingbird, with her red crown<br />
and red spotted throat, sips right along with me.<br />
Shepherds follow their off-leash flock up the canyon.webgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586450420365377359.post-16330512388590210852011-06-16T09:53:00.000-07:002011-11-09T18:22:35.173-08:00The Widow Rapsodic<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><i>The beat is everywhere, but life has to find its own flow.</i><br />
Jay-Z<br />
<br />
Take out your purse and lip gloss this--<br />
Woodpeckers are eating my roof<br />
I'm so nervous--<br />
like a rookie cop on a new beat.<br />
<br />
Day after day, I hear them hammering--<br />
a chorus line with 100 pairs of feet--<br />
Friends say I should join <a href="http://assets.aarp.org/www.aarp.org_/promotions/sem/member01.html?keycode=U8LXS5&packageid=&componentid=&whocalled=promo_enroll">AARP</a>.<br />
What for? To get a discounted rental?<br />
<br />
I dial insurance for the interview--<br />
Each time I look out the window--<br />
another shingle bites the dust.<br />
My life's savings are going bust.<br />
<br />
The agent on the line whines <br />
there's nothing he can do to stop her--<br />
assumes the bird's a she and not a devil--<br />
But do I look like some Harry Potter?<br />
<br />
Like this is a video conference<br />
and you could really tell.<br />
The bank refi is not going well.<br />
Rain washes out my eyes<br />
<br />
with a new vacancy rate--<br />
I watch my furniture float away--<br />
drive by a fork in the road<br />
and decide to go straight.</div>webgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586450420365377359.post-32313757503159490092011-06-01T09:09:00.000-07:002011-10-15T09:22:38.887-07:00Blue, Green, and Red<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwxd0pvWI6yMlqLNHNcj_Anx4YVc-QFu9Jmo06NnJ81F10UBuKYEuzbDrf2f7DZ9ddcH-AnVDmZ9lr70y5IL3wcx9DjBhjkzDliGerbNWTfx-mWUAY5uGK7sDqHDOIb5x3G395QZgCYjsG/s1600/DSC01806.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwxd0pvWI6yMlqLNHNcj_Anx4YVc-QFu9Jmo06NnJ81F10UBuKYEuzbDrf2f7DZ9ddcH-AnVDmZ9lr70y5IL3wcx9DjBhjkzDliGerbNWTfx-mWUAY5uGK7sDqHDOIb5x3G395QZgCYjsG/s320/DSC01806.JPG" width="214" /></a></div><br />
Freeze-dried memories<br />
dissolve in the waves<br />
along Highway One<br />
and turn blue, green, and red.<br />
<br />
Blue for the times<br />
I ran my finger <br />
on the sharp edge of love<br />
and stayed quiet,<br />
<br />
green for the passion<br />
that blooms in Lorca<br />
and grows in the city<br />
between pavement blocks,<br />
<br />
<br />
and red, red that burns hot<br />
like a soldering iron <br />
that pits soft skin raw<br />
to join sandstone with hurt.</div>webgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586450420365377359.post-38620129764737076322011-05-22T21:21:00.000-07:002011-10-13T18:22:23.728-07:00The Widow Revisits Golfball Graveyard in Dimond Park<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Afternoons we stayed in Dimond Park<br />
and mornings, too, when young bodies<br />
sang with new notes inside a pendulum<br />
swinging up and down.<br />
<br />
The children climbed monkey bars<br />
and screamed on the slide in the sandbox<br />
where every kind of dog buried its shit<br />
and walked away pleased <br />
<br />
until it was time to hike the canyon<br />
filled with mudrocks and ferns.<br />
Green parasols shaded wet feet<br />
as we heaped mouths with blackberries,<br />
<br />
and wove fingers between hairy thorns.<br />
In summertime, it was quiet and cool.<br />
Bay laurel trees arched above our heads,<br />
a processional to the graveyard<br />
<br />
where golf balls<br />
from the driving range at Trestle Glen<br />
lay buried at the edge of the stream <br />
like giant roe waiting to be fertilized,<br />
<br />
some orange, many white, a few <br />
had already shed their outer peel.<br />
They were not our keepers.<br />
Something else had found them.<br />
<br />
The game was about how many balls <br />
children could stuff inside their pockets<br />
without rolling back down. <br />
Not the kids. The balls <br />
<br />
swelled our pockets, lumps<br />
which were less like grapes <br />
and more like lymph nodes <br />
nursed by loving hands.<br />
<br />
And now as I look up the canyon,<br />
past the tangled blackberries<br />
and water spilling over rocks<br />
with pyramids of dog shit <br />
<br />
edging the path in mold, all I have left <br />
are hard bits of memory<br />
that line my own pocket.<br />
I touch them over and over again.</div>webgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586450420365377359.post-32075563542135820112011-05-16T12:05:00.000-07:002011-05-16T12:05:55.097-07:00Landays by Afghan Women & Poet Sayd Bahodine Majrouh<div class="MsoNormal">I discovered the poet Sayd Bahodine Majrouh on a flight from Oakland to New York. Prepared for the six-hour trip to visit my family, I had brought along a number of magazines from my dining room table. The stack included a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">National Geographic</i> magazine with an article about Afghani women. The article included several amazing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">landays</i> that I learned had been translated by Majrouh that identified him as the preeminent Afghani <i>poet</i> of the twentieth century. The article went on to note that he had been assassinated during his exile in Pehawar, Pakistan on February 11, 1988.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">What had caught my attention and led me to Majrouh were the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">landays</i>, a form that I later learned means “the short one.” It is a poem consisting of two verse lines of nine and thirteen syllables. These poems are largely anonymous and meant to be sung. Majrouh had collected these verses among Pashtun women in the valleys of Afghanistan and the refugee camps of Pakistan. They were first translated into French. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Songs of Love and War: Afghan Women’s Poetry </i>published by Other Press, offers these <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">landays</i> in English translation. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The books’ Introduction discusses the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">landay </i>and explains, “In a strict sense, they exist off-screen—off the cultural screen that is reserved exclusively for men and, consequently, off the social screen.”<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Here are several examples:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">My lover wants to keep my tongue inside his mouth,<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Not for the delight of it, but only to establish his steady<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> rights on me.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oh rooster, wait a little with your song!<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I have just come into my lover’s arms.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gently slide your hand inside my sleeves,<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The pomegranates of Kandahar have blossomed and<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> they are ripe.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">My friend, which of these two to choose?<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mourning and exile arrived at my door together.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tears are streaming down my face.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I cannot forget Kabul’s snow-topped mountains.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Your love is water and it is fire,<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Flames are consuming me, waves are swallowing me up.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The outlaws stripped everyone down to the bone.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I was plundered beneath my lover’s chest.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br />
Young mean, defend me, defend your very honor!<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">My father is a tyrant who throws me in an old man’s bed.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">See the dreadful tyranny of husbands:<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">He beats me and then forbids my weeping.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bracelets on my arms, jewelry around my neck,<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I’m leaving with my beloved, we are going home.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Majrouh collected these voices., a poet walked the way of the Sufi and the philosophers, a man who fought for the independence of Afghanistan and for a future that would respect individual liberty.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1978, Majrouh went into exile in Peshawar where he founded the Afghan Information Center, which broadcast reports on and analyses of the resistance across the world. He is regarded as the literary heir of Rumi and Omar Khayyam. Majrouh’s three-volume epic, Ego-Monstre, sadly, is not available in English.<o:p></o:p></div>webgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586450420365377359.post-82341651989186840502011-04-02T23:51:00.001-07:002011-04-03T00:18:38.217-07:00Medical Insurance Companies Suck the Big Bone<div class="posterous_autopost"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><div style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 8px; margin-right: 8px; margin-top: 8px;"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="mceItemTable" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(187, 187, 187); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(187, 187, 187); border-left-style: dashed; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(187, 187, 187); border-right-style: dashed; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(187, 187, 187); border-top-style: dashed; border-top-width: 1px; cursor: default;"><tbody>
<tr><td _mce_style="font: inherit;" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(187, 187, 187); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(187, 187, 187); border-left-style: dashed; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(187, 187, 187); border-right-style: dashed; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(187, 187, 187); border-top-style: dashed; border-top-width: 1px; color: black; cursor: text; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 8px; margin-right: 8px; margin-top: 8px;" valign="top"><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">I’ve been one of those fortunates who had medical coverage for most of my working life. However, several years ago my job disappeared. No worries. Now I could get COBRA<span _mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) passed by Congress in 1986 that gave certain former employees, retirees, spouses, former spouses, and dependent children the right to temporary continuation of health coverage at group rates. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) provided COBRA at a reduced cost, which for me meant that I would roughly pay one third, $390 per month as opposed to $1200. Still, this was a lot of money for someone who had been covered for many years through my employer. But I could meet that cost, at least for awhile.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman";" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Q. What happens when COBRA expires and the iceberg starts to melt?</span><span _mce_style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman";" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">A. What iceberg are you talking about?<span _mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman";" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span _mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman";" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Q. Health coverage. You know.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman";" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman";" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">I figured I could not be without health coverage. As a teenager I had been in and out of hospitals with an undiagnosed case of colitis at a time when not much was known about the disease. Later, I had a serious case of pneumonia that nearly had me packing my bags to the afterlife.<span _mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both events left me with a lasting impression about the importance of medical coverage. It also singed upon my person the need to play an active role in maintaining personal health.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman";" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman";" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">I do not need any prescriptions. Blood pressure is good. So is cholesterol. I exercise, eat right, and have friends, which is to say I’m in great health. Once COBRA ran out I was confident I could apply to my health care provider, Kaiser Hospital, for individual coverage. But guess what? I was denied.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman";" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman";" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Q. Why?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman";" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman";" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">A. Chronic renal failure otherwise known as lousy kidneys</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman";" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman";" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">“But I have never been diagnosed with chronic renal failure,” I cried to myself. “Were those medical miscreants looking at someone else’s medical records?” Then the light dawned. Last year during my round of check-ups some miniscule amounts of blood were detected in my urine. My doctor had sent me in for several tests to ensure that my kidneys were in good working order. They were. However, the initial diagnosis had placed me in a medical netherworld that no insurance company would now touch.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman";" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman";" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Upset not only because number one -- I was being denied medical coverage -- and number two – assigned a diagnosis that didn’t exist, I appealed to my doctor who sent me in for a number of very detailed tests to establish that my kidneys were in good shape. She wrote to me, “It is not unusual to get the kind of treatment you are experiencing. The bean counters in the health plan are charged with the task of letting only the healthiest patients who won't overutilize resources get through.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman";" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman";" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">There you have it. I appealed the decision and received two letters dated on the exact same day. One said that “Please be assured that we take this matter seriously and it is currently under investigation.”</span><br />
<span _mce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman";" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman";" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The second later informed me, “Our record review indicates that you have been diagnosed with chronic renal failure, stage III. This condition does not meet our KPIF enrollment criteria."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman";" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman";" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">I have filed a grievance with copies of my new medical tests and await Kaiser’s next decision. In the meantime, I urge you all to file letters if you are denied coverage. Stuff email boxes. Raise your own legal hoops. Talk with your representatives.<span _mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This has to stop.<span _mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our country is being taken over by people with priorities that have nothing to do with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.</span></div><br />
Lenore Weiss<br />
http://techtabletalk.posterous.com/</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div></span></div>webgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586450420365377359.post-10324825166637755052011-03-18T22:06:00.000-07:002012-02-01T12:18:49.204-08:00Park Bench<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
TVs are cinema-sized, computers<br />
in a back pocket, a world imploding<br />
like an elderly person, shorter every year,<br />
<br />
or like a garbage compacter<br />
from a movie where villains<br />
are compressed into a metal Chiclet,<br />
<br />
others scratch out their name<br />
with the back of a fingernail<br />
on a park bench with splinters.<br />
<br /></div>webgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586450420365377359.post-29674385569779151762011-02-25T10:49:00.000-08:002011-11-06T16:33:59.890-08:00The Widow's Ghost Visits Her Daughter<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times-Roman;">You've moved out.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times-Roman;">Tell yourself this time you really mean it.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times-Roman;">Recall </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times-Roman;">how I used to twist</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times-Roman;">my marriage band </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times-Roman;">around my finger. </span></div><div style="font-family: Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times-Roman;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times-Roman;">Or maybe it's nothing like that at all.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><br />
</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times-Roman;">You're nine months and feel a contraction, </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;">make the mistake of calling my old number.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;">At the next Stop sign, you grab something <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;">that sticks to your finger <o:p></o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times-Roman;">like batter to chicken</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;">when you moan, <i>Oh.</i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times-Roman;">Or maybe this week you're driving the kids to their soccer game.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;">You're lost, turn on the GPS. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times-Roman;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times-Roman;">November </span><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;">butting up against the holidays. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times-Roman;">You remember</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;">the macaroni and cheese our family ate one year <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;">and how you still can't get yours to taste like mine.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times-Roman;">Which is when I come in,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times-Roman;"></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">a visit from my permanent vacation spa</div><div style="font-family: Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">where sparrows dip into the jar<br />
of morning, noon, and night.<br />
<br />
Open my mouth to tell you I'm here,<br />
run my voice across your thick hair.</div><div style="font-family: Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Now it's my turn to miss you.<br />
We sit quiet together.</div></div>webgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586450420365377359.post-19984135252247900892011-02-15T12:33:00.000-08:002011-03-15T23:28:00.807-07:00Black is the Color of Marlon Brando's Motorcycle JacketBlack is the color of my true love's hair<br />
and Marlon Brando's motorcycle jacket,<br />
each tooth a silver zipper.<br />
<br />
Black is the color of roadies<br />
drinking beer down the street<br />
at the Big Dipper.<br />
<br />
Black is the color of Johnny Cash <br />
who kept praying for 'Nam<br />
to be over in a flicker.<br />
<br />
Black is the color of T-shirts<br />
of high-tech workers<br />
designing glass slippers.<br />
<br />
Black is the color of a woman<br />
stoned on a red carpet<br />
because a veil didn't fit her.<br />
<br />
Black is the color of people who fade<br />
behind the sidelines of center stage.<br />
Black is the color of our grueling age.<br />
<br />
<i>Chorus:</i><br />
And sorry, I drive a Ferrari.<br />
Bob Dylan (or insert another name)<br />
didn't wear black to the Grammys.<br />
He wore gold.webgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586450420365377359.post-47218854206919757452011-01-29T12:26:00.001-08:002011-01-29T19:17:30.372-08:00Dancing to Your Own Music<div class="posterous_autopost"><br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="mceItemTable" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(187, 187, 187); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(187, 187, 187); border-left-style: dashed; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(187, 187, 187); border-right-style: dashed; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(187, 187, 187); border-top-style: dashed; border-top-width: 1px; cursor: default; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><tbody>
<tr><td _mce_style="font: inherit;" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(187, 187, 187); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(187, 187, 187); border-left-style: dashed; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(187, 187, 187); border-right-style: dashed; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(187, 187, 187); border-top-style: dashed; border-top-width: 1px; color: black; cursor: text; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 8px; margin-right: 8px; margin-top: 8px;" valign="top"><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;" style="font-family: Helvetica;">When an email arrived from the<a _mce_href="http://tdps.berkeley.edu/" href="http://tdps.berkeley.edu/"> theater dance and performance studies program</a>from the University at California at Berkeley announcing a lecture “about “Doing Dance Criticism,” I decided to go.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;" style="font-family: Helvetica;">I thought the lecture would be a healthy experiment.<span _mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With a half hour before the program was to begin, I landed a parking spot and walked through Sather Gate and located Room 315 in Wheeler Hall, which was already filled with people.<span _mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There I found the famous quartet of dance criticism composed of:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
</span></div><div _mce_style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; line-height: 14.0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><strong><a _mce_href="http://www.pulitzer.org/biography/2010-Criticism" href="http://www.pulitzer.org/biography/2010-Criticism">Sarah Kaufman</a></strong></span><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;" style="font-family: Helvetica;">, dance critic for The Washington Post, won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.</span></div><div _mce_style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; line-height: 14.0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><strong><a _mce_href="http://www.threepennyreview.com/" href="http://www.threepennyreview.com/">Wendy Lesser</a></strong></span><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;" style="font-family: Helvetica;">, editor of The Threepenny Review, regularly writes about dance, music, and opera. She is the author of eight books, including <em>The Amateur: An Independent Life in Letters</em></span><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;" style="font-family: Helvetica;"> and <em>Nothing Remains the Same: Rereading and Remembering</em></span><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;" style="font-family: Helvetica;">.</span></div><div _mce_style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; line-height: 14.0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><strong><a _mce_href="http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/r/john_rockwell/index.html" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/r/john_rockwell/index.html">John Rockwell</a></strong></span><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;" style="font-family: Helvetica;">, former dance critic, music critic, and editor of The New York Times Arts and Leisure section, is the board chairman of the National Arts Journalism Program.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><strong><a _mce_href="http://articles.latimes.com/1992-10-07/entertainment/ca-641_1_irvine-barclay-theatre" href="http://articles.latimes.com/1992-10-07/entertainment/ca-641_1_irvine-barclay-theatre">Lewis Segal</a></strong></span><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;" style="font-family: Helvetica;">, formerly the staff dance critic for the Los Angeles Times, is a freelance arts writer based in Hollywood and Barcelona.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Sarah Kaufman referred to her experience checking in at the airport and asked,<span _mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Why do people recoil from physical contact and prefer a quick, but questionable technology,” contrasting the pat-down to the x-ray scan, perhaps thinking of the theme of her next dance article. Wendy Lesser responded to Kaufman’s question and offered, “The scan is faster.” As a recipient of two hip replacements, which requires Lesser to undergo pat downs all over the world, she said that the scan procedure means that people can keep a closer eye on their computers rolling down the security assembly line.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;" style="font-family: Helvetica;">But what about dance criticism? There were a variety of thoughts ranging from the notion that dance on stage, or to what the panel referred to as “concert dance” represents an accumulation of inputs from everyone who touches a performance.<span _mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The age-old question posed by the poet, W.B. Yeats, “How can we tell the dancer from the dance?” was described in the same way that the poet did—we really can’t. Another panelist said that the ability to write well in evocative terms, crafting language to describe the physical experience of dance, was a big plus.<span _mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The last speaker held by his motto, “We don’t make the scene; the scene makes us.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;" style="font-family: Helvetica;">One of the critics let the cat out of the bag and voiced a concern for the future of dance criticism. As newspapers shrink and arts publications die, Rockwell acknowledged that bloggers on the Internet have challenged the relevance of dance criticism.<span _mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said, “We’re in transition to a new business model that may eventually allow some people to earn a living.” He also hinted that the Internet may evolve into a pay-as-you-go model.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Segal also acknowledged changing business models, recognizing that new TV sets now offer access to the Internet. As a result, he said, the “difference between cable and web sites will become blurred” and offer dance websites a viable future.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;" style="font-family: Helvetica;">However, the critics did not mention the impact of TV programs like “So You Think You Can Dance,” or “Dancing With the Stars,” in bringing dance to new public audiences, until that question was posed from the floor. Then everyone pitched in about articles they’d written on the subject. Some offered that the programs were “vulgar,” others were more positive in recognizing that dance-savvy judges offered the public an opportunity to become “dance literate.” Another critic wondered why the public needed to know about what steps composed the “Paso Robles,” for example, when they could simply discern “the movement,” which sounded like a Marie Antoinette “let them eat cake” attitude if there ever was one. <br />
<br />
My take-aways? I learned that the world of dance, like every other place, is being seriously impacted by technology. I also felt that these four dance critics may be falling behind the public as You-Tube, the Internet, and TV programs legitimize forms such as B-Boy and Hip-Hop and bring dance to a new audience. Do these audiences have an interest in a criticism that can expand beyond the world of concert dance? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Maybe the panelists are dancing to their own mus</span></span><span _mce_style="font-family: Helvetica;" style="font-family: Helvetica;">ic...</span></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table></div>webgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586450420365377359.post-10328405355432671522011-01-23T19:16:00.000-08:002011-02-15T22:28:54.387-08:00Manduhai Across the RouterOn weekends I Skype you, <br />
wash sheets I bought when you lived here, <br />
fall down on the bed.<br />
<br />
There's no coffee in the house.<br />
I remember my dream where ribs of darkness<br />
decayed into a sandstorm of lightbulbs.<br />
<br />
Nothing about coffee.<br />
Fire, glass, and alcohol were part of it.<br />
The Borromeo String Quartet scanned <br />
<br />
Handel from laptops on music stands. <br />
The iPhone glowed blue <br />
with our songs.<br />
<br />
I pressed <i>Shuffle</i><br />
but they fell flat,<br />
technology <br />
<br />
a Genghis Khan <br />
shooting from the hip <br />
and the World Wide Web, <br />
<br />
a Spice Trail across <br />
routers with worm holes. <br />
Later from the estuary<br />
<br />
I emailed memories<br />
scented in lavendar, rosemary, <br />
and the back of your neck.webgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039675481266794193noreply@blogger.com3