9/30/08 Pillows

sometimes the bed is so small I can't breathe
and other times it is so big
no number of pillows
seems to fill it up

my bed is a place to hide
a cocoon that never transforms me
a blue ocean of sadness
and away I float

9/29/08 Deconstruction Zone

First I threw away all my furniture.
Now I've emptied my living room
and decided I prefer it this way.
I wonder what my closet would
look like if it were empty.
I wonder if I really need a bed.
My final goal is to get to the point
where I have erased any sign of myself.

9/28/08 to be continued...

I drive on the same three or four streets every day.
I don't even have to focus my eyes anymore.
I don't even have to look at the road.

I wish I would have been counting all along
so right now I would know exactly how many times
I've driven up Washington freaking Street.

9/27/08 Polite Conversation

So, what are you doing these days?

Oh, I'm an accountant.

I see. Are you self-employed, or?

Well, I work for a local firm, but I also do some
consulting on the side. Where are you now?

Actually, I just finished school, and now I'm a reverse psychologist.
Whatever you do, you definitely do NOT want to do my taxes
for free.

9/26/08 Card Night

A long, late night with a bent deck,
a couple bottles of wine and a silver case
filled with....chips? cash? gold?
What was in the case, Mony?
Intrigue at the Casino Royale level,
but with a little bit less killing.
And then we busted out the Apples to Apples
and it was all over.

9/25/08 Beautiful Day for Watching TV

It seems too late in the year to go outside
but it's not. It hasn't even frosted at night yet.
The trees are midway through changing color,

but the afternoons are actually warm.
Like start sweating when you get in the car
and wonder why you wore a jacket warm.

But I'm so ready to burrow down, I seriously
just want to curl up in the house today,
so I tell myself I'm practicing for winter.

9/24/08 Living Room

Between all these books
and piles of papers
and houseplants and art projects
and furniture and jackets and pillows
and toys and blankets and legos,
oh my god the legos,
between all these things there
is barely room for any living.

9/23/08 Ama's Story

I am a baby statue
and I am crying.
Ohhh, are you okay?
Yeah, I think I'm okay.

9/22/08 Cookie's Story

I don't ever want to be in another play.
I get too excited.
I don't want to be famous.
I just want to live a normal life.

9/21/08 Rock Band

Everybody's walking around like they're in a band,
like they're a rock star (they wish, we all wish)
because it's always been cool
but it's kind of an extra cool fad right now,
kind of like skulls.
Timeless coolness made cooler by a fad
that has been marketed just so.
Energy drinks and video games.
Skulls with bows stuck to their heads
for the girls.

9/20/08 Fries and Circus

I'm just a simple kind of girl
(with a nutritional deficiency)
and all I need is french fries.
All day every day for real.
French fries....and a circus.

9/19/08 Red Leather Couch

red leather yellow leather
blue leather purple leather
fa la la la la

this is my new red leather couch happy song

9/18/08 Time Out

Somebody throws something and then
somebody kicks me and somebody else
slams a door or empties out a bag of chips
on the couch or in the bathtub and it seems
like everybody around here gets time out
except me.

9/17/08 Marcos Altar Card

There's so much to do today
that I spent the morning watching
project runway on the dvr
and making a homemade altar card
of subcomandante insurgente marcos.
Next I might ride the momentum
and take a nap.

And there are heckles from the peanut section.

9/16/08 Bed Forever

Yesterday I wanted to stick
a garden hose down my throat
and strap a toilet to my ass
so I could stay in bed forever.

9/15/08 Asshole

I just remembered what an asshole you are!

Ha ha! I had forgotten!

9/14/08 Spirits

I can't hear my spirit guides
advising me
normally
but sometimes
I hear them howling
with laughter.

9/13/08 Campaign Ads

These things are so gross
they make me gag and sometimes
a little bit of vomit comes up
and then I swallow it again.

And I'm like
ewwww, McCain,
oh nasty, corn.

9/12/08 Marshmallow

There is a sleeping marshmallow on my lap.

He likes to nap on my lap while I type.

Sometimes he gets feisty and bites.

Other times he just melts into a ball of purriness.

9/11/08 Shift

I love the shift button on my keyboard so much.
I love its optimistic little arrow
that magically changes anything
into something else.

I bet there is a big huge shift button
hiding somewhere in my life,
and when I find it,
I am going to be so stoked.

9/10/08 Marriage = Man + Woman

Do you think these people
who argue all this marriage bullshit
realize that they are placing themselves
on the same historical level
as the people who argued against rights
for women or for African Americans?

Do you think that when they realize
what they have done
they will feel as lame
as they are?

9/9/08 My Wild Garden

all those yellow teardrop tomatoes
are hanging on the ground

pretty much everything else is
dying and getting crunchy

other people's pumpkins are already
turning orange

and I know it won't be long before
the geese fly

summer has had its way with me again
and I'm ready for a rest

9/8/08 Yesterday Out Here

Cookie stepped out the door today and said

it feels like yesterday out here

and I loved him a little bit more

9/7/08 Bureau of Dragony Magic

And now,
ladies and gentlemen
and members of the press,
please welcome the
assistant secretary
to the vice-president of the
lady in waiting department
of the home lair security branch
of the bureau of dragony magic.

9/6/08 Where I'm Going

I have seen the place
that I will go when I die.
There are dancing skeletons
and they are singing to me:

"Welcome to Tijuana,
tequila, sexo, marijuana..."
It's confusing, alright, but
things feel pretty good there.

9/5/08 Spit Up Chewed Out

I can't even tell what that is.

Is it cheese?
Cat vomit?
Playdough?

And without knowing what it is,
it is difficult if not impossible to determine
how many layers of paper towel I should use
to pick it up.

9/4/08 Medicine Wheel

The medicine wheel was much bigger
and had longer, rockier spokes
than I had imagined it might.

If I had had the presence of mind yesterday,
this is what I would have asked the wheel:

beautiful ancient medicine wheel,
as your spokes turn the sun in the sky
please help us turn, too, out of darkness
because we need your magical medicine
so desperately right now.

And then I would have thrown a penny at it.

9/3/08 Human Riot

A human walked in a sandwich board
covered with pictures of dead humans.

Another human dressed all in black
hurled hurtful words and shook their human fist
at the human inside the black riot armor.

A group of humans carried the names
of many, many human soldiers that had died
while herding or killing or helping
a distant group of civilian humans.

One angry human standing on a jeep
shot a gun filled with gas into a group
of angry and/or onlooking humans.

It is interesting to note that all of these
humans had one thing in common.

9/2/08 Bleeding Heart

If I take responsibility for that horrible thing that my country did in my name, I will have to take responsibility for every horrible thing that it has done in my name. And then my heart will be crushed by the weight of my responsibility and my utter failure.

If I cry now because I have seen this terrible truth or this cruelty, if I allow my heart to break for this, then my heart will break for every terrible truth and every cruelty that has happened or is happening or will happen, and my heart will be destroyed by the pain of my own small impotence.

But if my heart's destruction will help in any small way in the healing of this world, then I wish with all my heart for my heart's destruction.

9/1/08 My Son

My son is not a soldier.
He will never hold your weapon.
He will live long in spite of
the momentum of history.

My home is not a cell.
Its walls will hold strong for us.
It will be a place of safety
for anyone who enters.

My voice is not afraid.
It will never fear for its life.
It will speak its own truth
and find compassion.

My son is not a soldier.
My home is not a cell.
My voice is not afraid.