Today's Thoughts

It's been quite breezy here in London as of late. It's also been manically cold, which I should've expected, but was brainwashed into believing was another month or so off by the intense Indian Summer heat that greeted me on arrival.

Anyway, today I was walking to the library and watching this girl try to light her cigarette as she walked against the wind. I had a great ironical laugh to myself, imagining her inner monologue:


"Gawddammit, light -- LIGHT for God sake! One...two...ugh, stupid wind! Ahhh. Ahhhhhhh. Come on, almost there! DAMMIT, WHY DOES THE EARTH HATE ME? WHY CAN'T I JUST TAKE ANOTHER BLOODY STEP TOWARD CANCER ALREADY!?"

I sort of wanted to point out that the elements were only doing her a favor, but somehow I figured she wouldn't delight in my perspective.

Speaking of cigarettes, if I can't think of any better Halloween costume, I might just have to go as Johnny Cash:

I think I've got his old kind of bug-eyed look going, but I had to hide my girlish lips more Joaquin style...


On another page (ah hahaha, you'll get that joke in two seconds), I entered my room upon return from dinner today, having left in the midst of starting another essay, and realized an infestation has begun here...

It started off shrewdly, but then I found them creeping along my countertops...

and lurking amidst my writings...

one of them had even staked ownership of my bed:

THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!!!

THEY'RE ALIIIIIIIIVE!!!

ATTACK OF THE IMPORTANT LITERATURES!!!

Seriously, though -- I'm reading like mad right now, and trying to find SOMETHING (ANYTHING) that hasn't already been covered in Shakespeare criticism for my next essay.

Wish me luck!

Some Silliness

No matter how ridiculous they looked, due to the influences of the 1970s, these two will always be at the top of my list for favorite thing to watch ever. Honesty, resilience, trust...



WHY ARE THEY SO ADORABLE?!!

And in case you need more evidence (0:00-1:58ish):



Also, something INSANE happened to me tonight. I started getting back into all my rockabilly blues -- you know, Elvis and Cash and all that sort of thing, with some Beach Boys to mix it up a little -- and then I got to thinking about Catcher in the Rye and the essays I'd been reading about Holden Caulfield and his ability even as a character on a page to stir up rebellion. Then I got some kind of surge of testosterone and started leaping off everything in my room and throwing stuff off my bed and having a whoop-ass grand old time being something like a 12 year old again. Acting like an ape-child. And dancing. Dancing my dreams right into the air. It was really something marvelous after a frustrating day. I think I'll take ape-child over pout girl any day. New solution to life's problems right here.

Finally, I'll try to stop posting YouTube videos and weird anecdotes and get on with more enlightening, worldly information soon.

Po-eh-three.

After quite a few years of deliberation and denial, I have decided it's time to actually take some steps toward my goal of becoming a writer and making some of my poetry public. I've been having dreams with shadow figures encouraging me toward more confidence, more openness. So here we go. If you read it, please tell me what you think!

Thanks all,
-RB

1. Yes, And
Your weekend was great
Yes, and I thought about seeing a film.
Yes, and I would have taken a yoga class, but my teeth hurt that day.
Yes, and you told me something else about that -- about your teeth.
Yes, and you smiled.
    Oh.
Yes.
    Oh.
...And you took the last Kleenex!
Yes, and I”m sorry.
We both are.
Yes, and we both are.
Yes, and you once told me you belonged to everybody.
Yes, and you were fine with that.
Yes, and you believed it.
Yes.
...And here’s my foot atop your shoe.
Yes, and it’s come to rest ever so slightly against my heart.
Yes, and that’s where it should be,     no?


Yes.
Yes, and.


Yes, and.

2. Ceasefire

-->

This bloody abandonment

on a battleground of veins:

water through a twisted pipe,

cigar smoke from a candle flame.

Espresso jolts expressed in steam

on open earth that bleeds black mud.

Filthy grounds, crimson-soaked filters,

kerosene across a tongue:

the taste of someone else’s dream

An oil puddle oozing grease.

A button come undone.

3. Separately, Together
Let’s be lonely together,
You and I,
And in that lonesome pairing draw
double toward:
As separate curtains on a rod’s two sides
Once pulled
Form a solitary veil.
We need no more than our respective breaths
Velcroed in the air, 
Zipped twixt fate's fingertips,
Drawn tandem as magnets.
Parted from the rest, but
evermore the center of an idiom;
let’s be turtledoves.