Anita DeRouen

Thing 1: a prop from the movie they’re filming on campus right now. I think our art gallery was transformed into an airport terminal.

Thing 2: Mark’s latest rubber duckie. This one joins his everyday ducks and Uncle Sam duck. I want a Mardi Gras one, but I fear he might be a bit risqué.

Thing 3: Bug Races. Mark now has a tiny collection of Hex Bugs. The small ones are Flash, Dash, and Crash. The larger ones are mom and dad. Mom is pretty fast and wily, while Dad takes his time to do things right.

Cheating, I know, it’s the start of a new term, so…

I’m in the Apple Store. The Jam’s “Start” is faint in the background, but it makes me smile. Very Apple.

I’m waiting for my appointment at the Genius Bar. Steve and I bought new phones last month, and mine has this weird intermittent pop in the screen near the volume buttons. This is what I will tell the technician because the pop isn’t making an appearance this morning. This is the way of technology in the face of immediate tech support. “No, really, I’m fine!”

There are several people ahead of me. The nice young man doing triage is so patient. “Well, ma’am, I’m sorry to tell you that this phone is no longer under warranty,” so we can’t do the fix for free because you let your relative “fix” your broken screen. “Have you backed it up?” because what I’m about to do to your phone to fix it is a little trick I like to call Scorched Earth. There are lessons–for owners and their friends/lovers/spouses about their devices. A couple with a small child give up their spot in the queue because wee one’s needs trump mommy’s every time.

I don’t hate coming to this place. It’s clean and well-lit. The folks are courteous and patient. To be honest, watching this young man listen to the issues and try to untangle the problems gives me some for food thought about how we deal with each other in this world. Patience. Dialogue. Listening. Explaining. Teaching.

“And what you give is what you get.”

It must be the start of a new semester. I’m seeing lessons everywhere.

The most natural thing, death, and yet it takes us by surprise. Amiri Baraka has passed, and I wonder what other losses this year will bring, which members of our human family will be taken and what–if anything–we will learn from their leaving. 

An Agony. As Now.

One is the loneliest
But two is colder than
Three is bolder
And four just wants to be
Five as soon as possible.

And six? Well, six and seven
Are with you. Hanging out
Till eight is home, late and drunk again
On that wine that nine thought was oh-so-fine.
And in bed by ten
Eleven felt the room spin. So
Twelve took a walk in the dark
To start it all over again.

(I don’t even know what this is. I just like to make silly rhymes at times.)

Not my words today, but words that have stuck with me for a long time. 

Gerald Costanzo

The Meeting

Somewhere along the road
you meet up with yourself.
Recognition is immediate.
If it happens at the proper
time and place, you propose
a toast:

May you remain as my shadow
	when I lie down.
May I live on as your ghost.

Then you pass, knowing you'll
never see yourself that way
again: the fires which burn
before you are your penance,
the ashes you leave behind are
your name.