Living Room

Ciao Baby!

*guest photo by Ruth Judge on set one (the orange building with bicycles).

No Relation

A Sea of Tense and Tea

is there no assurance of things long remembered?

a steady rhythm to recall the object of my derision

I, a small and feeble thing

confessing words that strain to match the intensity

of men with chests, barreled full of poetry

a thing long forgotten, it not I

and a placid sea of tense and tea

maybe it’s better to be blessed

than to arrange fallen line comedies,

an orangutan harangue and pitiful pigs

the procession never ends

this evolution is revolving round

flaccid round a cosmic point that dwindles

it must be something that collapses into nothing

what then remains of things long remembered?

better left lamented, love cements itself

till the bitter end begins again

and again I strain to see the point

where the small and feeble thing

becomes worthy of a king, it not I

pardon me, pardon me amidst the sea

find a steady rhythm to recall

a line forgotten in royal geometry

the wave stands still yet what remains

a pillar of salt just right, his not mine

then left a tragic stain

remember the pronouncement, again

a thing long remembered,

never more, never mine, I resign

There's A Sinister Side to Life

There’s a sinister side to life.
Brutal and real in that imaginary sort of way.
Flesh torn asunder
a violence
poured into coronary caverns.
It thunders and pulses
Fingertips throb with the nadir frequency of fear.
It’s a throttled, hushed tone
that knocks pernicious at your door.

The smokey breath of death slips beneath the threshold,
a bellicose bromine pools around your feet.
Suddenly the vivid stench of darkness goes quiet and flat.
The idle golden lock turns and clicks.
The shape it takes,
Altogether average but for a tilt and a tear
etched beneath the skin.

In the dusty corners of your eye, the world is black and white—
Stare this terror in the face
and see the hideous splendor of your own.
Escape the mirror of caprice
before its image breaks the plane.

Company

[On the left...]
“Sensationalism! Somebody’s drinkin’ it—it exploded. It’s all about personalities.”

[On the right…]
“That’ll clear out all the alcohol and the junk. What sort of insurance do you have?
—Detox! I love it.”
[Squealing]

“It’s just do what you will… what you will.
I’m the invisible third argument, trying to bridge the gap between urban youth culture and the church, the Christian World and the non-Christian world, which is bigger and more influential, and clearly.”

“Oh! Definitely ‘It’s Complicated’. No Question. Burn that one.
Precious? Never heard of it.
Sherlock Holmes? Oh! Yes, yes yes!”

[With affection…]
“My students…”
[With respect…]
“…my students.”

“Have you seen Twilight? No? It’s that vampire movie with—”

“You’re a little walking bibliography, here.
[laughter, page flipping]
Mm. Young people.”

“—young people.”
[tantalized]
When’s your birthday?
The 27th.
The 31st! Aquarius.
[High-five]
My ex-husband’s the 23rd.
[Eye roll]
Oh God. Oh, wait, no, he’s not a real aquarius.”
[Relief]

[Lean in]
“There’s a difference between being counter-culture and anti-culture.”
[Lean back]

[One departure]
“He just has a love addiction. That was the deal this time. He said give me a daughter, I’ll marry you—she’s 30.”

Schnee