Tuesday, September 30, 2008

the midnight schulich to nowhere

The trouble with working late is you lose your sense of time--and, as a consequence, the ability to budget it effectively.

Just as we should be anxious to finish and break free, home begins to seem a further and further prospect as sleeplessness and silence dull the knife-gleam focus we brought with us: for it is warm in the sleepy belly of this old hall, and the night is cold and the walk is long--perhaps I might just stay a little longer?

It begins to seem like infinite time is available--like we, the strange passengers on this slow train, are not here to accomplish goals, according to the logic of the day, but only to pass these strange hours, waiting, always waiting, for the moment when we will all arrive...

Later, an elegant solution: I run out of pencil lead.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Life advice

One of the people I worked with (or near, I suppose) this summer was a woman from Costa Rica. As soon as she found out I knew a little bit of Spanish she would constantly come by to have a chat. I suspect she was amused, but she was never mean about it, and it was fun to practice Spanish amongst the drudgery.

This one time she was asking me why I hadn't taken my break. I told her a few people hadn't shown up, so we were behind quota.
'Hay suficientes mártires' I think is what she said to me.

The phrase keeps popping into my head.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Fashion Sense?

I saw a man on the street today
Whose face was burned so badly
That afterwards I could not remember
Whether his shirt
Or his pants
Were bright purple
But all things considered
Either one
Would have offset
The gentle hue of his scars
Marvelously

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

"Boris is a cuntface"


May 31, 2008
Where were you?
-------------------------------

fiverforthelips enjoys honey and peanut butter on toast

Monday, September 22, 2008

அன் இரோனிக் உஸ் ஒப் ஆஃஉஇரெட் ச்கில்ல்ஸ் (An Ironic Use of Acquired Skills)


I felt a funeral, in my brain
when i am in poetics class.

i sit here
bored
waiting for something to happen.
i am tired of literal images.
i am tired of studying syntax and inflection.
i am tired of a windowless room.