Take Up Your Spade

Yom Kippur

I meant to post this yesterday and forgot.

I'm posting this video of excerpts from the Northern Exposure episode "Shofar, So Good" which is a Dickensian take on Yom Kippur. I generally identify with Joel Fleischman (apart from not having a doctorate and a few other ponts). Even if you are not Jewish, I hope you take the time to reflect during this time of the year (even if the Days of Awe have now technically passed). Shanah Tovah.

Poem of my Loneliness

May it be known that the following poem is my intellectual property and should not be reproduced or distributed without my permission, however you may link to this page should you so desire. Seriously, I'm extremely paranoid about the lack of privacy or respect of property on the internet and I take an awful risk even posting this. But as I've tried and failed several times to see it published, I produce it here. If it is misused, I will not hesitate to take it down. Please do not steal my words or ideas. This poem in its earliest draft is at least 5 years old.

"Sometimes"

Sometimes

I don't want someone to talk to.

I want someone to sit beside for hours

With that favorite T-shirt feeling,

Knowing love in comfortable silences.

And when it's you with me, we hold

Hands unconciously, or just touch fingers

Sometimes

Sometimes

I call you 

By nicknames from books you've never read

And you like it, though you don't

Like to read. So, I read them to you

Sometimes

Sometimes

When I vacuum I lift the rug

And unearth the letter E from when

I wouldn't let you cheat at Scrabble

So you threw all the tiles in anger. It's been

Hard to play without that E but

You still insist I let you win. So I don't

Sometimes

Sometimes

I freak out

And you're there. You hold  me

When I'm paranoid. I'm glad

You're watching me, even if they are too

Sometimes

Sometimes

I'm not around

When you find a spider. I come in

And you have bravely slain it. You're quick

Though to let me know you'll only do it

Sometimes

Sometimes 

I study the freckles sparkling beneath

Your eyes like pavement sun sprinkles

And think of how far down they go in places 

I can't see when you're dressed.

I think about connecting them like stars

While you sleep. And I do

Sometimes

Sometimes 

I imagine a world where

Your name is a swear word

And I swear

All the time.