Blue Morning



When I Look To The Sky


When it rains it pours and opens doors
And floods the floors we thought would always keep us safe and dry
And in the midst of sailing ships we sink our lips into the ones we love
That have to say goodbye


And as I float along this ocean
I can feel you like a notion that won't seem to let me go

Cause when I look to the sky something tells me you're here with me
And you make everything alright
And when I feel like I'm lost something tells me you're here with me
And I can always find my way when you are here

And every word I didn't say that caught up in some busy day
And every dance on the kitchen floor we didn't have before
And every sunset that we'll miss I'll wrap them all up in a kiss
And pick you up in all of this when I sail away

And as I float along this ocean
I can feel you like a notion that I hope will never leave

Whether I am up or down or in or out or just plane overhead
Instead it just feels like it is impossible to fly
But with you I can spread my wings
to see me over everything that life may send me
When I am hoping it won't pass me by

And when I feel like there is no one that will ever know me
there you are to show me

Cause when I look to the sky something tells me you're here with me
And you make everything alright
And when I feel like I'm lost something tells me you're here with me
And I can always find my way when you are here

Train

Out of Step



I just figured out that FP is one of my friends on Face Book. I don't really get how Face Book works entirely, because I am old and foggy. FP, forgive my idiocy. I love you very much!

Odd happenings, spent some time yesterday at work trying to figure out how to best describe a client's illness in a case summary, an eye disease called nystagmus that I never heard of. Then last night I was reading a novel called Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver, and a character in the book had nystagmus. Weird coincidence. Then last night I dreamt that the kids and I drove to my brother's house, twice to squirt scented powder all over the front of the house to make it smell nice. I don't talk to my brother really, so what the hell did that mean?

The boy is driving me bonkers, but my friend Lia suggested a book called Yes, Your Teen is Crazy. Thank god for Lia and that book! It is already helping me deal with my teen whose brain seems to have been replaced with a swirl of hormonal mush. Lesson one, do not engage in arguments with a crazy person! I have some work to do.

Mothers, Daughters

Through every night we hate,
preparing the next day's war.
She bangs the door.
Her face laps up my own
despair, the sour brown eyes,
the heavy hair she won't
tie back. She's cruel,
as if my private meanness
found a way to punish us.
We gnaw at each other's
skulls. Give me what's mine.
I'd haul her back, choking
myself in her, herself
in me. There is a book
called poisons on her shelf.
Her room stinks with incense,
animal turds, hamsters
she strokes like silk. They
exercise on the bathroom
floor, and two drop through
the furnace vent. The whole
house smells of the accident,
the hot skins, the small
flesh rotting. Six days
we turn the gas up then
to fry the dead I'd fry
her head if I could until
she cried love, love me!
All she won't let me do.
Her stringy figure in
the windowed room shares
its thin bones with no one.
Only her shadow on the glass
waits like an older sister.
Now she stalks, leans forward,
concentrates merely on getting
from here to there. Her feet
are bare. I hear her breathe
where I can't get in. If I
break through to her, she will
drive nails into my tongue.

Shirley Kaufman

Hurray for Three Day Weekends


Tomorrow is Monday and I am off! I think tonight when kids get back from BFI's I will take them to see Coraline. Went out Friday AND Saturday night and am exhausted! I am however going out to peruse the poetry section of Barnes and Noble before kids get back, and perhaps buy a new vacuum cleaner, whoo hoo, at Sears. Went out with co-workers on Friday, including the lovely Linder Loo, and ended up salsa dancing in a club called Havanna. Yesterday was my friend Miriam Stanley's book launch party at the Bowery Poetry Club. Made a new poet mommy friend, ate Korean food, and generally had an EXCELLENT time. Sometimes I really love my life! The clip below is amazing...enjoy!

Sunday and the Deep Freeze is Over



The computer gave up the ghost last Sunday and so I have dug out the old Dell and am back online, after a fashion. This computer was purchased in 1999, so you can imagine how SLOW it is. But it is better than nothing, and I managed to do my taxes on it today. Bonus, music I had downloaded on it is again accessible. Listening to Train right now, which is bringing back a lot of memories from approximately 2001 to 2005. Well, kids are back so now football is on, so much for memory lane.

Went out with work colleagues on Friday night, which was fun and I stayed out until 11:00, late for this old lady. Saw Steve, my old fascist work buddy that I adore despite his twisted thinking. And Rod, another former Binder-ite, who is now teaching English to public school kids in Bellrose. How cool for those kids to be studying Romeo and Juliet with a teacher with an English accent. Took me until Saturday afternoon to recouperate. Used a computer at the library to complete the intro for a book I am writing for a friend's publishing company. I have been sworn to secrecy regarding project, so no details, but boy does it feel good to be writing.

BFI has a cell phone and told kids not to tell me. Then BFI, being the genius that he is, called my house from phone. Star 69'd, and now I have his number for when he doesn't show up, etc. Kids, don't procreate with an alcoholic loser!

I am now on Facebook, although I am not really sure how to use it. People are leaving messages on my wall, some of whom I don't know. I will figure it out.

Just served Tofurkey and it is horrible! Beige colored foam rubber stuffed with rice. Maybe it was because I bought the Vegan kind by mistake. It SMELLS like turkey. Tastes like turkey droppings (or what I imagine turkey droppings would taste like.) I am going to have yogurt for dinner. The boy does not seem to mind the tofurkey.

Eletelephony

Once there was an elephant,
Who tried to use the telephant--
No! no! I mean an elephone
Who tried to use the telephone--
(Dear me! I am not certain quite
That even now I've got it right.)

Howe'er it was, he got his trunk
Entangled in the telephunk;
The more he tried to get it free,
The louder buzzed the telephee--
I fear I'd better drop the song
Of elephop and telephong!)

Laura E. Richards