by Raymond Carver
So early it’s still almost dark out.
I’m near the window with coffee,
and the usual early morning stuff
that passes for thought.
When I see the boy and his friend
walking up the road
to deliver the newspaper.
They wear caps and sweaters,
and one boy has a bag over his shoulder.
They are so happy
they aren’t saying anything, these boys.
I [...]
To an old friend, courtesy of Philip Larkin:
Continuing to Live
Continuing to live — that is, repeat
A habit formed to get necessaries –
Is nearly always losing, or going without.
It varies.
This loss of interest, hair, and enterprise –
Ah, if the game were poker, yes,
You might discard them, draw a full house!
But it’s chess.
And once you have walked [...]
From Lambchop’s “Paperback Bible” – a reminder to me, tonight, of simple folly, and of the cowardice that leads people to lose themselves, and run the risk of causing others to lose themselves along the way.
Then there’s a Reba designs
Size eight, prom pageant dress
It’s icy blue
With sequins worn just once
There are others that are strapless
But [...]
Here they continue to build apartments, these little men
with hammers and steel helmets crawl around
fuck around, talk rugby in the smoky sunlight
and I stare out the window like some demented man,
watching their movements, wondering about them
as some woman downstairs screams and a man
walks by the window, and his face contains the brutality and
sleepiness of a [...]
by Adrienne Rich
Good-by to you whom I shall see tomorrow,
Next year and when I’m fifty; still good-by.
This is the leave we never really take.
If you were dead or gone to live in China
The event might draw your stature in my mind.
I should be forced to look upon you whole
The way we look upon the things [...]