I know we had a tough day yesterday. But, let me begin to mend us. One of the great things about last weekend was being able to get all the books I left behind. Books that I actually thought I had brought with me. Just before the South Country Fair I was looking everywhere for Jorie Graham’s book Hybrids of Plants and of Ghosts. It’s probably a good thing I didn’t find it. It would have let me know that I am not a poet.

Mother’s Sewing Box

In an old cookie tin, because
things last longer
in the dark.
She needs to be left alone.
Here are saved
the bits of string
too small to save, the eyes
of the needles.
On the string
the knots are birds that sit,
that cannot leave. The buttons
are wheels. Assemble them,
these uneven machines,
and they say, how much
for Effort, or, wait,
I’ve changed my mind,
I want to come along.
To disobey
is to hide or to be
unmended. Maybe you’ll find it,
she says after I’ve said
I don’t have, didn’t take,
her belongings.
The spools of thread
form a train. Swarms
of starling cry we are pins,
pins. We are going so fast.
Maybe you’ll
find it, maybe
you’ll find it, lazy susan
got a black eye. The needle,
covering its tracks,
makes a pattern
of its incisions, the pincushion
with its pocked body
snapped quills . . .
and if she isn’t gone
she lives there still.

I’ll hug you on Monday.

Last week, when I had had enough of the heat I said When winter comes I am going to buy a portable A/C unit for cheap. Because they would be cheaper when it’s not hot, therefore cold, aka winter. Someone in my office said Wouldn’t you feel guilty? (Because of the power wasted. But then I wondered how much power I waste with the 43 fans we have running in our apartment. Basically created my own wind tunnel.) At that point, I didn’t care. But, I wondered why we invented air conditioning?

Today, I figured it out. We didn’t invent A/C for wussies like me that can’t take the heat. A/C was invented by coffee addicts. It was invented so that you weak, poor-spirited and more-wussy-than-me people could comfortably drink hot coffee in the middle of summer. That’s my theory.

You addicts. You are weak. You make me sick. I realize that I need to tread lightly because Leah is a self-confessed coffee addict. But, I am going to throw caution to the wind and say Hey, it’s time to take a look at your life and wonder if you are master or caffeine is?

Reasons I hate coffee:

1. I am not a weakling.
2. It’s gross.
3. It’s ignorant.
4. Weak I am not.
5. I was built to be a superior being without artificial sweetener or energy boosting chemicals.
6. If I need a hot drink I will drink tea.
7. If I needed something to get me through the day I would drink whisky and smoke.
8. Makes you dependent. I am independent.

Look. Let’s talk heart-to-heart. I care about you. I know I was a bit abusive earlier. But, let’s get to the heart of the matter. You have a problem. I don’t like it. You are so much better than those devil-beans. It’s time to let go of coffee and embrace me. Follow me. I know the way.