The Cello: End of "Interlude" by Bach

Two final notes
wrenched from a dead poet
by a violent cellist
grapple in the
silence.
One, silver,
a satin ripple
lurching across a cavernous pool.
One, black,
some guttural, violated brute
forever haunting a lonely wood.
Both
throttling my eardrums
with fingers
without fingernails;
raw nerve endings
clawing up some primitive memory
of terror
and beauty.

Carly

Half of her,
her light
glows in close orbit,
radiating mirrored illumination.
Both sources.
Both reflections.

33 Things You Don't Want To Hear Someone Say As They Walk Out Of Your Bathroom

I want to credit this blog entry to Aaron, who inspired me to come up with my own list here...

1. Now I'm starved.
2. I'm not done, I just need to borrow some goggles.
3. Can you sub in for a couple minutes?
4. I really need to cut my fingernails.
5. Life is so unfair.
6. I need some gum.
7. Can I borrow some shoes?
8. I was lucky the bathtub's so close.
9. Black is my favorite color.
10. I haven't wept like that in years.
11. I still can't find the other half.
12. King me.
13. I'd make a great lumberjack.
14. I'd make a terrible lifeguard.
15. Do you have a cane I can use?
16. Say hello to my little friends.
17. I thought of a new Yo-Yo trick.
18. Whoops
19. I set 'em up, you knock 'em down.
20. Where's your fire extinguisher?
21. Im like the Energizer Bunny.
22. You might need a new shower curtain.
23. What's a Proctologist?
24. Not even a full length mirror would've helped.
25. Now I'm a Tenor.
26. How good is your insurance?
27. What's the A. stand for in Immodium A.D.?
28. Sorry, I just couldn't stay seated.
29. You're out of T.P., Kleenex, and cotton swabs.
30. Can I borrow a rake?
31. Did I lose?
32. What blood type are you?
33. Receive it.

A Penny Short

It was the kind of day
where even the sweat hides from the sun
in every small crevasse
to try and stay in it's liquid form.

To keep our mind on the heat
we were playing this fun game,
I forget what it's called,
where we turned the A/C on and off
every 5 minutes
to maintain the delicate balance
between keeping both us and the car
from overheating,
and we were failing miserably.

We pulled into the next gas station
and ran inside to wait for those
little sweat pools to freeze
and grab an ice cold Coca Cola Classic.

The cashier relucantly rang me up,
and the total was $1.01,
and of course I only had 1 dollar,
and every penny I could've found
was probably melting under the car seats.

I looked at him sheepishly
like a boy at his first school dance
in his father's sweater vest and skinny tie.
He looked at me with such scorn,
such scorn,
and scrunched up his fat neck
to nod down to a makeshift sign
above a little dish filled with pennies.

The sign read,
"Need a penny,
Take a penny,
Have a penny,
Leave a penny."
So I followed the sign
word for word,
over and over
and kept ending up a penny short.
I never did get that Coca Cola Classic.

Words

"Do you have a way
with words?" she asked.

"Well, I'm sure if might,
I've been always and,
what?
Hey!
So, yes, I think."

End of Analog

The longest running TV show
is about to go off the air in early 2009.
It used to be my childhood favorite.
I would sneak downstairs
when nobody was watching,
turn the TV on quietly,
and just sit and stare,
letting my imagination wander
while images formed on the screen
and filled my mind.
I credit that show with having
the greatest impact in my life so far
on my imagination and creativity,
although it was always banned by my parents.
My mom would inevitably ruin my fun
and say something like,
"Jacob, I don't like you sitting there
staring at black and white static."

Evergreens

Sometimes, during the harshest seasons,
it's easiest to find our roots
by shedding all external layers
to the wind and cold,
and tracing the leftover core
down to the darkest places,
to dig deeper into a new source of life.
But, most of us are pines,
forever ashamed of being exposed.