Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Post-Finals Bliss

I am at long last done with finals, and have rewarded myself for a job poorly done by shopping. Hardcore. The splurges were unintentional, as they so often are. I was simply keeping a friend company while she shopped, and somehow, I ended up buying far more than she did when I meant to buy nothing at all! How typical of me...

They were playing club music in Macy's today, and all I want to do is dance, now that school's out!

It's blissful to be finished. I surely would not have gotten through finals without my old pals from Destiny's Child keeping me awake on many an endless night.





Also, the Sparks. If you haven't listened to them, you must! They've produced irresistible nonsense music at its finest since the late 1970s. It is hard to believe that they never exploded given such catchy melodies and lyrics like, "Chicks dig, dig, d-i-g, dig, dig metaphors" in the song "Metaphors," or from the song "Let the Monkey Drive," "We're driving north on Highway 1 / Toward Santa Barbara, lots of sun / Pacific Ocean on our left hand side / Though Santa Barbara's on our mind, our love can't wait till after nine / So she says, 'Can't we let the monkey drive?"

Really, there would be no Scissor Sisters without these guys.



Wednesday, May 19, 2010

the post-modern buddhist blues

buddhism is cool now
so let's look at this like buddhists do
the new kind, anyway

we'll plan to stop planning
because being in the now
is the same as being in

we'll be the post-modern kind of buddhists
the sort that love for free and often

the kind that lure you in
but do not lock the door
even as you're begging for a bolt

we'll look at this like buddhists do
worshipping the swift affair
until it ends
and end it surely will
because we planned it all along

maybe we'll meet sometimes at night
but if we do, it's only chance

and at 9 p.m. last wednesday
clearly, no, you did not recall
that I'd be waltzing down the hall
when you found yourself idling
where you did not have to be at all

of course, you could not, did not know
where i'd be or where i'll go
these run ins are pure luck
but since we've met again:
when will you be free to fuck?

we'll write it in the moleskin just in case
in pencil, since that's what buddhists do
the williamsburg sort, that is

how does june 16th sound?

Monday, May 17, 2010

Tonight, Imma fight, till we see the sunrise.

Last night, I planned to pull an all-nighter to work on a take-home final, a paper, and an internship application. I sure as hell stayed up all night, but only worked on actual work for about an hour. Typical, typical, typical. The rest of the time I downloaded The Doves, made a 4 AM hike to McDonalds, and wrote something resembling poetry (see below). Now, the sun has risen, I'm still awake, on my third or fourth bottle of Pepsi, and instead of starting my work, I started this blog. Oh well. Somehow, I still get my shit done with time to spare.







--

these days
everything has meaning

near in nearly
hard in hardly
bare in barely

the planes i almost missed
but didn't

the tests i should have failed
but didn't

the motorcycle
that got me to my train
in the nick of time

maybe it's a sign
in this relentless night
that the light that flickers
fails to fade

that yesterday's pigeon poop
missed me by a minute
and an inch

that the weather forecast predicted storms
but it only stormed in Jersey

close calls chime in sync
and tease my eardrums to believe
that the world might howl
even sans a big bad wolf

and ghosts are not the same
as people who are pale and ill

and coffins are just shoe boxes
graves are only stones
they are the only objects on this earth
that mean nothing
nothing

'cause these days
everything means something
and my eyes solely see analogies
and i only think in similes
my world is twisted out of imagery
and i am made of metaphors

you'd surmise that i'm a writer
but i am just a dreamer
built of words
and punctuation marks

or lack thereof

i see only what i want to see
images are chosen carefully
meticulous
ridiculous

there is symbolism in this diet coke
fizzing
nearly spilling
but just
filling me
filling me
filling me
with all the pseudo energy
i need to make it through this night

liquid utopia
bubbly
bubbly
i drink a flawless fantasy
and begin to breathe again

there is life bursting from this plastic
ejected from an automat
that gave me an extra bag of chips
for free

father seems to be dying
but this vending machine says otherwise
just a dollar-something for a coke and chips?
my luck is changing
changing

and maybe he's not dying
after all