Twice Used Books, Seattle, 2007Photo 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.
