A Reflection of Things the Way they Are

Grit

Summer solitaire is all grit and sweat. A flood in the kitchen. Streaming down twelve flights. A pool is found. Hidden in the basement. It's deep. I flow.

Out and About

Two blonde girls are walking into the lobby at Daffy’s. They are heading towards the elevator when I see them. One is wearing a yellow t-shirt that says "I ♥ WIENERS" and the word wieners is shaped like a hot dog. The elevator doors open and we all enter. In the elevator, the other blonde, wearing a prissy white sundress, is putting something in her mouth. It’s the last bite of her frank.

Me & Louis

The Princess Wants to Play

The attraction to rejection is not scientific. Neither is the rejection of attraction.

Denial, only a protection, a moat around the castle. The princess wants to play. She’s feared the game and wants to know if there’s time to learn new rules before the game is over.

“Yes,” cry all the minions, the minyans, the men. “Come again and play.”

On the Phone

I'm on the phone with one of my ex-boyfriends telling him about the street guys I've seen lately doing exercises in public.

"One day it was a guy doing push-ups on the corner of 13th St. and Fourth Ave.," I say. " And the next, maybe even the same day, I saw another guy on Second Ave. and St. Marks doing deep knee bends."

The ex says, "Even bums have to stay in shape for the homeless babes."

"Is that how they get babes?" I ask.

"That's how we all get babes," he tells me.

And I tell him that must explain the girl with dreadlocks who's sitting dirty on the ground near Virgin Records with a sign that says she needs money because she's 3 to 4 months pregnant.

"There's so much misery in the world," I say, but vow to myself that I'll start eating better and exercising more.

Addiction All But Forgotten

I've given up Solitaire.

Some days I just sit quietly and watch the cursor on the screen.

My New Motto

The girl who plays solitaire doesn’t catch the worm.

But I ask you, "who wants a worm anyway?"

So, I keep playing solitaire.

Tick Tock

Days pass.

Softness hardens.