READING LIFE

Guess who rocks my world tonight? Natalie Goldberg. She's so into the freedom of writing it makes me nuts. She wants a person to write anything, everything, as long as they are actively creating. She also wants people to read anything, everything, so they can go on perpetuating the arts. So I took her advice and thought about what it means to read--also, what it means NOT to read, what we stand to lose. Then I let my brain wander outside for a bit. It came back with a memory! I twisted it, pulled it in half, dissolved it in a glass of wine, and here it is. (By the way, Natalie's book Old Friend From Far Away is pretty good.) (And no, I wasn't drunk when I wrote this. Just feeling free!)


READING LIFE

it was december
we were strolling through paris
our tummies filled
with toast and nutella
our pockets jingling
with coins
it was a good full feeling
it was a jingly jingle
cars zoomed down the streets
we turned down the alley
you said you’d never been lucky
you said you’d never been perfect
I lit another cigarette
and stepped in someone else’s spit
somewhere up high
two hands shut a window
you said it might have been the blind man
you said god was closing up shop
there were voices going
the other direction
one said go ahead and get married
one said the silver key, the green door
you walked patient as a donkey
you said it was a starry night
I shoved my hands inside my pockets
and said a little nothing
not one book
in sight