Amendment (Ani DiFranco)

I had such a sweet, thoughtful post scheduled for today... but, in the last 48 hours, I am just more and more pissed off!

F*cking Texas and their f*cking abortion ban (which I now read is also being planned by Florida, Arkansas, and South Dakota).  I may have my head in the sand/been living under a rock, but I'd never before heard of a shadow docket.  I call bullsh*t.

What can we do?  What *are* we going to do?  This is unacceptable.  We worked too hard for Roe v. Wade to see it crumble like the spines of the Republicans who are behind this offensive and oppressive legislation.

“Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness – and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe.

The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability.  Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them. Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” ~ Arundhati Roy, War Talk

and...

“One by one the women step up

and commit the forbidden act

of biting into patriarchal thought

refuting it, smashing it,

discarding it and beginning again

in the very beginning when women

loved their bodies

named their gods

authored their lives

when women refused to surrender

except to life as it pulsated through them.

Women reminding us

there is nothing wrong

there never has been anything wrong

there never will be anything wrong

with woman.”

~ Patricia Lynn Reilly

It is indeed Feel Good Friday and, as is tradition, five items below of beauty, interest, and humor to brighten/enlighten your day/weekend/week.  Enjoy! 

~ First Look: Paradis Books & Bread, Miami’s Gamechanging Natural Wine Bar and Bookshop:  “It’s all an experiment."

~ A Simple 5-Step Process for Finding Peace in Times of Conflict:  Ever feel like you are living a life of chaos? Are you feeling overwhelmed and frustrated over these crazy past two years? When difficult things happen or conflict arises, it can be hard to feel peace.

~ Inviting Readers to ‘Dig Into the Whole Garden’:  Margaret Roach, a gardening columnist for The Times, wants readers to see planting and landscaping as more than outdoor decorating.

~ Spike Lee, Exultant at the ‘Epicenter’:  The filmmaker’s epic new documentary series, “NYC Epicenters 9/11-2021½,” is an alternately mournful and irreverent tribute to New York.

~ Could you wear a dress for 100 days?  When Emma Beddington took part in a challenge to wear the same dress for 100 days, she wasn’t expecting to feel the positive force of sisterhood alongside a few neat cleaning hacks.

SONG:  Amendment by Ani DiFranco

BOOK: On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint by Maggie Nelson

POEM:  The Nothing by Sarah la Rosa

Dark water

muddy water

groundwater.

Creativity is like this

swirling 

and circling

and thick.

There is no easy, clear flow

of sparkling oceans and singing rivers.

My muse comes to me in the mud--

that sacred mixture

dirt and dark water

that heals blind eyes

and draws toxins

from the skin and deeper organs.

The smell is pungent.

This is the artery of the earth

this is the tar-coloured pitch

that feeds the tributaries

flowing toward La Loba who gathers

to Kali who destroys

to the truths I'd rather avoid

inside of myself

about myself

in spite of myself.

One has no choice

but to face the Great Nothing

if one is to find

the Underneath River.

It is a gift, the nothing.

It empties us utterly

of falsity and the hollow stubbornness

that claims to be abiding strength of spirit

but drains us of genuine courage instead.

And we must be emptied

if we are to be fed the living water of spirit.

And so, what is one to do?

What is the solution

the course of action

while stranded in the desert?

Do you sit and conserve your strength?

praying that you live

through this painful dehydration

of the soul?

No.

Continue on

feel the burning sand 

between your toes

feel yourself melting

and merging

with the Great Nothing.

Sink

below

dunes and heat.

There you will find

a cool, dark place

that smells of ancient rains

collected on the ground

beneath your blistered feet.

The waters rise.

QUOTE(S):  "I write because it makes me feel like someone's listening - or I am finally listening to myself." ~ Unknown

"I have a soft spot for books by tough, radically honest women with an uncommon antenna for magic, language, and landscape." ~ Maggie Nelson

I Dare You (Kelly Clarkson)

When last I wrote, I was in a bit of a funk, so yesterday I headed to the kitchen.  Spent a few hours immersed in cooking and music (two of my favorite things), with my old-school iPod on shuffle, sequeing from Dar Williams (duh!) to Richard Shindell to Joni Mitchell to Dave Carter to Carlos Santana to Stephanie Mills (disco!) to Will Kimbrough to Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, etc.

Made chick'n salad (chickpeas pulsed in the NutriBullet, adding vegan mayo, chopped apples, sliced grapes, diced onion, and chopped walnuts)... brownies (with JustEgg)... and lettuce wraps (I scaled back/substituted to make it substantially easier than the recipe calls for).

I also experienced two very successful grocery deliveries this week, both from Whole Foods.  They actually had *everything* on my list, including JustEgg, which has become very hard to find and, believe it or not, their prices are more in line with reality.  I am forever grateful to Publix Instacart, but it's nice to have another option.  Maybe alternate between the two?  Still pondering.

Had a lovely, extended phone conversation with my friend KathyB, whereupon we bemoaned the sh*tshow that is our leadership (both federal and state) right now, and vowed to get together in their front yard for a Social Distancing Happy Hour!

Oh, I also toe-dipped back into retail therapy.  Returning to my moratorium on spending, but all three (a tiny silver nose ring, purple yoga capris, a vampire book!) lifted my spirits.

So, as is tradition, five items below of beauty, interest, and humor to brighten your day.  Enjoy your weekend! 


~ The Joy of Regrowing My Scallions — Yes, Regrowing My Scallions:  You’ll have to trust me. It’s more thrilling than it sounds. (thanks to Nancy for the idea, and then this article came up on my radar, so I sent it to her, and now I'm sharing it here...  :-)


~ With the World on Pause, Salamanders Own the Road:  Traffic is down, thanks to the pandemic. That’s good news for amphibians looking to migrate safely.


~ Hug guard for Nana:  I want someone to invent this for me...  💓


~ The Many Masks of Nancy Pelosi:  The speaker of the House has relentlessly, and strategically, made masks a part of her platform.


~ 10 Sneaky Ways Your Coronavirus Anxiety Is Coming Out:  COVID-19 is messing with everyone's mental health. Here are subtle signs it's affecting yours, plus advice on how to cope. (thanks to Sarah, who got it from her friend Nicole!)



SONG:  I Dare You by Kelly Clarkson (thanks to BrookeB for this wonderful song...  💖 )

BOOK:  Zen as F*ck Journal by Monica Sweeney

POEM:  Things That Are Changed—March, 2020 by Kimiko Hahn

A bandana. A cardinal. An apple

No. 2 lead pencil—the mechanical pencil, now empty—appears more vivid 

A box of toothpicks—now that I’m baking bran muffins

Rubber gloves: that Playtex commercial “so flexible you can pick up a dime.” I tried once and it's true. Thankfully, I have yellow rubber gloves—like those Mother wore. We never had a dishwasher. No, that was her, the dishwasher. Not even this gloomy daughter was assigned the chore. Though I did learn in Home Ec. to fill a basin with warm water and soap; wash glasses before the greasy dishes then silverware and finally pots and pans. Rinse. Air dry (“it's more sanitary”). And I do.

Scissors: I cut up dish clothes to use as napkins. When I try sewing on the ancient Singer (1930?), the knee-lever doesn’t work so I abandon the hemming. Then hand stitch while listening to the news. I am grateful for a full spool of white thread. 

Scissors: where once I used these to cut paper, now I use them for everything. Including hair. Father always directed us to use the right kind of scissors for the task—paper, cloth, hair. Had he lasted into his nineties, how would he have dealt with sequestering? With belligerence, no doubt.

Empty jar: I think to grow beansprouts and look into ordering seeds. Back ordered until May 1.

Egg shells: should I start a mulch pile? Mother had a large empty milk carton by the sink where she'd add stuff to mulch. And now T reports that because they are making every meal, Our mulch pile is so alive.

Sleeping Beauty, yes, that cocoon—

Moby Dick, The Tale of Genji, Anna Karenina—I left Emily Dickinson—Selected Poems edited by Helen Vendler in my office

Notebook: March 20, 2020
A student in Elmhurst cannot sleep for the constant ambulance sirens. She keeps her blinds drawn but sees on tv what is taking place a block away—bodies in body bags loaded onto an enormous truck. The governor calls this The Apex. And late last night, R called—“helicopters are hovering over the building!” She remembers the thrumming over our brownstone in Park Slope on 9/11. And just now I learn that religious people just blocks from her were amassing by the hundreds, refusing social distance. And I am full of rage. Some communities have begun to use drones to disperse people. The president states he has “complete power.” And I am filled with rage.

Binoculars: a cardinal

102.7°F

Puzzling 

A neighbor goes out to pick up my prescription. I leave daffodils on the porch for him. I picked them with gloves on. 

QUOTE:  "Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.  We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it." ~ Arundhati Roy

Only If You Run (Julian Plenti)

I've said previously that the golf course in our condo complex is now closed, which of course was no problem since neither of us play golf.  The plus side is that we now have full access to the golf-cart-turned-walking paths, a much more expansive and scenic route.  Another plus is that now my husband and I are walking at different times (trust me, it's for the best!), and I've been able to enjoy my music again, plugging my earbuds into my phone Pandora app.  We have a diversity of stations, and putting it on Shuffle becomes a nice mix of Joni Mitchell, Dar Williams, Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer, Todd Snider, Amy Rigby, Danny Schmidt, Brandi Carlile, The Avett Brothers, Indigo Girls, John Prine, Dave Matthews Band, Coldplay, and of course all the other random artists they sprinkle in who have the potential to become new discoveries.  That's where today's title song comes in.  Never heard it before, and now it's a favorite.  Boom!

Of course, I have a lot of Christmas/holiday music on there too and, every time one comes on during my walk, I stop, skip ahead to the next song, and resume walking.  Pandora allows you only so many skips, and then you just have to keep listening.  The other night (because I was on a phone call with my daughter) I left the house at 7:30 p.m., not my usual 7 p.m. start time, and by the time I was on my second loop of the golf course, way toward the back of the property, it was getting very dark.  What comes on but the soundtrack to the movie Halloween, scary as all f*ck, and of course I had run out of skips.  Eek!  I honestly expected something horrible to happen (such a cliche) but, thankyoujesus, I lived to tell about it...  :-)

From now on, I will listen to every single Christmas song, saving my skips for situations such as this [ominous music plays] (closed captioning text while watching The Outsider...  👀)

Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
April 15, 2020
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): I hope that during the coronavirus crisis you have been entertaining wild truths and pondering the liberations you will initiate when the emergency has passed. I trust you have been pushing your imagination beyond its borders and wandering into the nooks and crannies of your psyche that you were previously hesitant to explore. Am I correct in my assumptions, Leo? Have you been wandering outside your comfort zone and discovering clues about how, when things return to normal, you can add spice and flair to your rhythm?


SONG:  Only If You Run by Julian Plenti

BOOK:  Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

POEM:  Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale by Dan Albergotti

Measure the walls. Count the ribs. Notch the long days.
Look up for blue sky through the spout. Make small fires
with the broken hulls of fishing boats. Practice smoke signals.

Call old friends, and listen for echoes of distant voices.
Organize your calendar. Dream of the beach. Look each way
for the dim glow of light. Work on your reports. Review
each of your life’s ten million choices. Endure moments
of self-loathing. Find the evidence of those before you.

Destroy it. Try to be very quiet, and listen for the sound
of gears and moving water. Listen for the sound of your heart.

Be thankful that you are here, swallowed with all hope,
where you can rest and wait. Be nostalgic. Think of all
the things you did and could have done. Remember
treading water in the center of the still night sea, your toes
pointing again and again down, down into the black depths.

QUOTE:  "Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew.  This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.  We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it." ~ Arundhati Roy

Life (Will Kimbrough)

John Lennon was right - Life really *is* what happens to you when you're busy making other plans (weak smile)...

Thanks to everyone who's been worried about me, and got in touch, one way or another, to let me know - your concern is justified. Hard to believe it's been almost three weeks since I posted - as I just responded to a comment from a friend, after my mom's passing I seem to be segueing from the stages of shock and numb to depression, and have been spending a lot of time in my head, processing. It's all destined for a future blog post (soon, I promise!) but, in the meantime, I wrote up most of the following the week after our September 30 book club meeting... and then never got around to uploading it - it still holds true... maybe even more so, considering my current state of mind...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Your horoscope for October 6, 2009

If you keep waiting and waiting for things to happen, SUSAN, you may wake up one morning and realize that your whole life has gone by and you never did half the things that you dreamed of doing. The time to take action is now so put your plan into effect. You may need to make some compromises, but you will find that in general, people will willingly follow your lead.

...and, for the week of October 4:

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Change your password. Take a different way home. Ask a question you've never asked. Dream up a new nickname for yourself. Choose a new lucky number. Change the way you tell the story about an important event in your past. Make it a little more difficult for people to have you pegged. Eat a type of food you've never tried. Do the research necessary to discover why one of your opinions may be wrong. Add a new step to your grooming ritual. Feel appreciation for a person whose charms you've become numb to. Surprise yourself at least once a day.

Last week was our book club meeting, the first back together after having taken the summer off - I love this diverse, funny, kind circle of women who are wise in literature and in ways of the heart. It was my turn to host and to choose the book... and I picked Life is a Verb by Patti Digh - it's had quite an impact on me the last almost-year and I wanted to share the ephiphany-inducing collection of stories...

"In October 2003, Patti Digh’s stepfather was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died 37 days later. The timeframe made an impression on her. What emerged was a commitment to ask herself every morning: What would I be doing today if I had only 37 days left to live? The answers changed her life and led to this new kind of book. Part meditation, part how-to guide, part memoir, Life is a Verb is all heart.

Within these pages—enhanced by original artwork and wide, inviting margins ready to be written in—Digh identifies six core practices to jump-start a meaningful life: Say Yes, Trust Yourself, Slow Down, Be Generous, Speak Up, and Love More. Within this framework she supplies 37 edgy, funny, and literary life stories, each followed by a “do it now” 10-minute exercise as well as a practice to try for 37 days—and perhaps the rest of your life."

I've said that there were no regrets with my mom's passing... but there has been a minor one - I sent her this book last January after I visited and, when I was there this summer, caregiving, I had every intention of reading parts of it aloud so we could discuss. Time and energy (or rather, lack of both) intervened, and I never got around to it - so... I asked each of our bookwomen to choose a section that "spoke" to them and encapsulate it for the group - I am pleased to say everyone exceeded my expectations, and the conversation was quite stimulating, deep and, at times, emotional...

These days, I'm really trying to embrace be-here-now, seize-the-day, enjoy-the-moment mode - in fact, I made a mix of relevant songs and gave everyone a copy during our gathering. The point of the book (and my selection of it) is, in Patti's words, "about living each individual, glorious day with more intention. It was simply about saying yes, being generous, more fully inhabiting the life I have, not creating a new one."

Our menu consisted of food that made us feel "alive"... and the array was delicious and inspiring - we topped it off with dessert from B.J.'s, which I discovered a few weeks ago and declared it the best carrot cake I've ever eaten (you can really taste the nutmeg!)...

P.S. Apropos of nothing... although I've not been posting my contributions here (as I used to), I still write for the weekly-themed Star Maker Machine music blog, and last week's topic was Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse - it was an educational and inspirational exercise in which I was proud to participate...

SONG: Life by Will Kimbrough

BOOK: The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die by John B. Izzo

POEM: Following the Road by Larry Smith

I have left my wife at the airport,

flying out to help our daughter

whose baby will not eat.

And I am driving on to Kent

to hear some poets read tonight.

I don't know what to do with myself

when she leaves me like this.

An old friend has decided to

end our friendship. Another

is breaking it off with his wife.

I don't know what to say

to any of this-Life's hard.

And I say it aloud to myself,

Living is hard, and drive further

into the darkness, my headlights

only going so far.

I sense my own tense breath, this fear

we call stress, making it something else,

hiding from all that is real.

As I glide past Twin Lakes,

flat bodies of water under stars,

I hold the wheel gently, slowing my

body to the road, and know again that

this is just living, not a trauma

nor dying, but a lingering pain

reminding us that we are alive.

QUOTE: "The only dream worth having is to dream that you will live while you are alive, and die only when you are dead. To love, to be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and vulgar disparity of the life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget." ~ Arundhati Roy

Find the Cost of Freedom (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)

Monday, January 28, 2008
CSNY Speak Out and Listen In
“Déjà Vu”
by Gregg Goldstein

Park City, Utah - Death threats, loud catcalls and walkouts didn’t stop rock legends Crosby Stills Nash & Young from completing their fiercely anti-Bush reunion tour in 2006.Two years later, the band has reunited again to unveil its Sundance Film Festival closing-night film, “CSNY Déjà Vu,” a documentary that isn’t so much a concert movie as a balanced examination of America’s fiercely divided opinions about the Iraq War.

“We went to war for one reason, then the reason changed every six months,” said the project’s main catalyst, Neil Young, an approachable guy despite his habit of locking eyes with you and not blinking when he speaks. “America never had a pre-eminent war in history before this, so we had something to say. But if anyone has anything else to say, the more the merrier.”

“Déjà Vu” takes a 360-degree look from inside the eye of a storm the band set out to create on their Freedom of Speech tour. It profiles civilians and soldiers both for and against the war between performances of popular ’60s protest songs and newer, less universally accepted ones, like “Let’s Impeach the President” from Young’s 2006 album “Living With War.”

And don’t get Young started on the war.

“Some people support the troops by saying they’re being abused, put in a situation with no armor, where they can’t win, where there’s not enough of them so they’re used over and over again,” he said. “They say the American way of life is threatened, and we’re at war for our lives. But if that’s true we should’ve had a draft. These guys didn’t believe that enough to put their own careers on the line. It would be political suicide for this administration.”

BOTH SIDES NOW

But there are plenty of well-articulated, contrary opinions in the film, and lots of self-criticism. There’s footage of fans leaving en masse with middle fingers raised during “President” — though Nash noted that it came three hours into a 3 1/2-hour show — and gripes about $350 top ticket prices.

The film even includes a review saying the huddled sixtysomethings look like they’re comparing prescriptions onstage. “I didn’t get putting that in for a while because I’m not a masochist, but I came around,” Stephen Stills said with a laugh. “We’re all pretty proud of Neil for including it,” David Crosby added. “But don’t tell him I said that.”

As the band sat in a swank Park City Delta Sky Lounge suite, they had an easy camaraderie that showed their mutual affection — and a love of giving one another a hard time. When Crosby put his bare feet up on the table, Stills quickly waved his hand in front of his nose.

But while all members support the film’s inclusion of differing points of view, like the pro-war sentiments some people express onscreen — “We don’t want to stand on a mountain and tell everyone how to do things because we don’t know more than everyone else,” Crosby said — they chose not to include the death threats and bomb-sniffing dogs they faced at each stop on the tour.

“I’ve never gone into a hotel where everyone else went into the room before to look behind the curtains. But we did it,” Young said. “We’re not going to live like this forever. You don’t want to fan that (by putting it on film) or say, ‘Look at poor us, we have death threats.’ ”

The band members are famously contentious. “We watch out for each other like brothers, and we fight like brothers,” said Young, who has drifted in and out of the band for decades.

“We’re a damn Jerry Springer show!” said Stills, drawing much laughter.

“Yeah, it’s the Jerry Springer Tour!” Crosby added.

But virtually none of that is onscreen, and on further reflection, the band said this tour might have elicited the least interpersonal tension of their career.

“We were basically scared s—less, so we were hanging together closely,” Young said. “It wasn’t comfortable out there, just because of the subject matter. Positive or negative, we crossed a line.”

ENTERING THE DEBATE

Young said he doesn’t really care what audience the $500,000-plus digital-video feature reaches — “We’re not making it to score commercially,” he said — yet the band feels strongly about securing a theatrical release to help stir debate several months before the presidential election.

“Déjà Vu” is directed by Bernard Shakey, a shadowy figure who has never been seen in the same place at the same time as Young. His work includes the quirky 1982 comedy-drama “Neil Young: Human Highway” and dates back to the trippy 1974 film “Journey Through the Past,” which has never been released on home video. “It’ll come out again, and now it’ll live up to its name,” said Young, Shakey’s unofficial spokesman.

The film could lead to a concert album, another promotional tour or even an original album, said Nash, depending on its reception. They’re hitting the road soon in different combinations: Crosby Stills & Nash in July, Crosby and Nash in the fall. Graham Nash is completing his box set and helping Stills on a box set. CSNY is prepping an album of demos of their songs dating back to the ’60s.

Young insists that his “Archives” project, delayed more than a half-dozen times, will be released this year on Blu-ray Disc and DVD (but not CD) “now that technology has caught up to how we want to present it.”

But right now their focus is getting “Déjà Vu” seen to stir debate.

“I truly believe there are good people on both sides. You can’t look at John McCain and say he’s not a good man,” Young said of one of Crosby’s friends. “He’s not dirty, he has experience, and he believes he’s doing the right thing. How is that different from Barack Obama?“

This movie is not about our opinion, just people willing to stand up and express what they believe” he said.

Or, as Stills put it, “The Constitution doesn’t say you have to support the liberal blowhards, just freedom of speech.”

So... today is Election Day, the presidential primary here in Florida, and I'm reading that, so far, there is record turn-out - the excitement level is high (major understatement).

My husband had a business dinner last evening, so I seized the opportunity to treat my daughter and son to a meal at our favorite local sushi restaurant - the impromptu outing made for some great conversation, most especially regarding today's choices. I told them of an exchange I had earlier that day, in which a co-worker voted early and said how emotionally overcome she was (in a good way) at seeing a woman *and* a black man on the ballot, believing it would never happen in her lifetime - I love the fact my children will soon be able to take this progressiveness for granted, as gender/race barriers crumble and the circle of role models widens.

I will head to the polls as soon as I leave work this evening, as will my daughter... and my son has promised he'll vote before his 4:00 p.m. shift - this is not your forefather's democracy... :-)

SONG: Find the Cost of Freedom by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

BOOK: Is This Any Way to Run a Democratic Election? by Stephen J. Wayne

POEM: Possibilities by Wislawa Szymborska

I prefer movies.
I prefer cats.
I prefer the oaks along the river.
I prefer Dickens to Dostoyevsky.
I prefer myself liking people
to myself loving mankind.
I prefer keeping a needle and thread on hand, just in case.
I prefer the color green.
I prefer not to maintain
that reason is to blame for everything.
I prefer exceptions.
I prefer to leave early.
I prefer talking to doctors about something else.
I prefer the old fine-lined illustrations.
I prefer the absurdity of writing poems to the absurdity of not writing poems.
I prefer, where love's concerned, nonspecific anniversaries
that can be celebrated every day.
I prefer moralistswho promise me nothing.
I prefer cunning kindness to the over-trustful kind.
I prefer the earth in civvies.
I prefer conquered to conquering countries.
I prefer having some reservations.
I prefer the hell of chaos to the hell of order.
I prefer Grimms' fairy tales to the newspapers' front pages.
I prefer leaves without flowers to flowers without leaves.
I prefer dogs with uncropped tails.
I prefer light eyes, since mine are dark.
I prefer desk drawers.
I prefer many things that I haven't mentioned here
to many things I've also left unsaid.
I prefer zeroes on the loose
to those lined up behind a cipher.
I prefer the time of insects to the time of stars.
I prefer to knock on wood.
I prefer not to ask how much longer and when.
I prefer keeping in mind even the possibility
that existence has its own reason for being.

QUOTE: "Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing." ~ Arundhati Roy