Aging even as we speak
Edith and I were crossing Queens Boulevard a little behind Eva, so we got a good look at the back of her head, with its thinning purplish-brown hair. I said, “It’s time for Eva to stop dyeing her hair. It looks ridiculous.” Edith said, “You know Eva’s very vain and
Sea-Lions
SEA-LIONS, WITH APOLOGIES TO THE ANIMALS, WHO ALSO NEED TO FIND THEMSELVES A NAME THAT REALLY SPEAKS TO THEM The waves told me what to call them. This in a moment of confidence, nobody around, and they were rushing up and whispering in those urgent white voices, showing their teeth and scribbling madly in sand, each one rewriting
Respect for Stones
I go out to court the stones in my courtyard. It seems only fair since I keep saying I spent quarantine with 40,000 friends. I mean, I go out to count the stones in my courtyard. As a sign of respect. Everything I learned I learned from stones. My
About Comparison
About Comparison. and To Keep Thinking Fresh, Keep Language Fresh The other day I read somewhere that each generation of abusive parent defends themselves against the notion that they are the same as their own abusive parent by not being abusive in the same way or to the same extent. “But I don’t
Seas, oceans, egg salad sandwiches
The sea is roaring like a lion. No, the sea is becoming a lion. No, “The sea is becoming an ocean, dude,” I say to nobody. It’s just her and me. Who else, on this Roman beach, really knows an ocean? We knew the ocean of Brooklyn. The spanking mothers who handed out egg-salad sandwiches, and told
Under the sign of Pothos
Eros has a sibling, a beautiful boy, Pothos, sometimes aka Anteros, who signifies love for someone faraway. I suppose you could call him, you could call his kind of desire, his kind of love, longing. I find out that there is no direct way to translate “longing.” In Italian “desire” and
“To Long”
The god Eros has, sometimes, more or less, given mythic variations, two or three lovely brothers: Anteros, god of requited love, the one who wants things to work out and believes that love must be answered if it is to prosper (Anteros honey! Where are you when we need you?);
“Paradise net”
Collage by Randall Hamilton I strongly dreamed this term, “paradise net.” When I awoke it had lost its meaning but retained the sense, the odor, the aura, that it was indeed meaningful what could it mean? Each word alone -- easy. Combined, each comes into question in relation to the other term.
Walking in Tongues
It was a huge, glorious realization, some 15 years ago, when I realized that I had nothing to lose by shamelessly revealing my weaknesses. Anything but. In fact, hiding, and hiding shame, makes one weak. But to the point: I have an incredible spatial disorientation when it comes to, well,