Monday, December 20, 2010

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING

Twice Used Books, Seattle, 2007
Photo by Danny O'Bryan

 "I find myself going through cycles, as if I were the earth moving in
orbit around the sun. During my warm periods, when the sun, "creation" and
"imagination" is closest, I am very alive and full of ideas and joy. But when
I switch trajectories and move away from the "sun" I am cold and fall into
despair. When I am cold I drift away from people. I become very alienated and
despair flows in unabated.

Yardhog's Journal
11/2/94



Song and Dance
by Jonathan Greene

At the mall

the granddaughter whines
'I need' with an insistence,
an urgent test of familial bonds.

The old man mimicking,
'You need, like a hole in the head'
-but this is all a ritual,

the back & forth ploys,
well-rehearsed melodrama
and pantomime.

She sways, one foot to another.
They both know he will give in,
despite at first the necessary protests.

The twelve-year-old has calculated
how 'love' comes in handy at such times.

This silly plastic handbag that today
means the world.

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