Monday, August 31, 2015

two nights dreamed of tall water.
the first, riding atop the tallest waves in train cars, saving the people and carrying the cats in boxes. gracie lou who close to my chest, while i call orders over the tumult.
and the second, on the tallest balcony, the tidal wave encroaching, worrying over the people and herding the cats into tubes. willikers the prominent tuxedo in a tunnel of black cats.
and that night, in the dark of the conscious world, the saloon deck of the ferry to manhattan, leaning over the railing, willing myself not to drop in.
and then the train with river wild, and finally seeing rex across broadway, in front of roma's pizza. we dance the distance until the lights change. our reunion on the streets and at the overcrowded dyke bar, cash only. but friday night and too many straight boys and overpriced weak whisky pushes us to the corner store, the tiny park, the street. rex doubts his inner queens compass and modern convenience leads us astray. we never do find the water, let alone the pier. what we find is a strangely deserted bright street with a rock. without protest, the rock lets us talk and sit and drink and piss and nearly fall asleep right on it, until rex gets us going, back to the subway and the walk through the garden apartments to the cluttered cozy jackson heights townhouse where we can whisky steelie sleep through the morning. except that rex has a bus to boston at dawn, so i oversleep alone, try to slip out quietly, but am thwarted by his mom, nourished with apple fritter, sweet talk, and decaf. the journey back to staten island takes two meandering hours, and the ferry is soothing this time.
ganas is a strange green maze with its own sidewalks, raised up from the street; is this the real city? there is a palpable tension between old and new, the steadfast 60s communards and the invigorated younger set, fresh for revolution. "it's time to turn, to revolve, it's always time," we say, as we huddle on our porches, sneak a smoke, scurry when we hear them coming.
and look, we do share the bounty! from the house pantry, jaclyn makes tunafish pizza with bacon grease white sauce, plus tomato cheese just for me. the days drift in the green heat; is this city real?
wednesday rolls around and i still don't make it up in time for the 730am planning meeting, especially not from the extra house at the bottom of the hill. i still can't handle time, i'm one step slow all day, and even run late to rex's show at the new york city bureau of human services queer division, and the building was even more swanky than the name. everyone is beautiful gayz and i'm so proud to see rex his cap his bow tie his perfect poems and py arrives right at the end, during the glitter rap dance party, the queer cafe unsure how not to shake. pyrite is a vision in the village, vegetarian and mostly sober, until we spot the stella. "it's the gay beer," we're told. we fold into a flock, a glistening smoking parade brigade, back to the dyke bar, cash only, whisky bourbon on special.
i'm sorry if i rambled your ear off, spun off too far, gave you too many smokes, spent all yr money on drinks, spit your powdered supplement on the ground, cried on your shoulder, hugged you too many times, kicked you for old times' sake. but we did laugh, and we remembered the ghosts, and we almost walked that secret path.
but it twisted and you left us underground in the sick yellow light, where we continued to follow that dolorous brick road through the tunnel, to the dive with the whisky and the filthy foggy back room. it's no wonder i can't remember what was said. but we make it our home, for now, and i could live here forever until rex persuades me to leave, he in his infinite wisdom, with his mind on new york time, and again quit my pointless flirting and i'll hold my brother's hand on the train to queens, and again i'll share your bed until morning, but this time i have a bus, and two ferrys, and ten trains to catch to make richmond tonight, where i'll hitch a ride to twin oaks with comrades, albeit strangers, friends who have never met.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

i feel like i may have broken your heart without even trying, without doing anything, and it kills.
don't you know that my bones are crying, that i ache with loneliness too? that i hate it?

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

The Keep is a bright and cheery collective house in one half of a three-story duplex in DC's Park View neighborhood. With only six bedrooms, at first the place strikes me as a little small for a commune, but with a spacious kitchen and common area for the entire ground floor, I soon see why this is the Point A DC headquarters. The eight members of the Keep are young, vibrant, beautiful folks, bubbling over with sexual energy and crazy infectious laughter. More than a few of them went to Oberlin College, and it turns out there are mutual friends among us. It seems so silly to realize that the world is so impossibly small, but then again, of course it is.

I arrive just in time to be whisked away to a sold-out punk show, where two of my newest favorite bands are playing, and these kids just happened to have one extra ticket.... fate! A local electronic artist opens the show, followed by Girlpool, a duo who appear to be barely out of high school... reminds me of my first tour with SV way back in the day, in the summer following our senior year. Frankie Cosmos closes the night, the first show on her tour, so the band seems a little wobbly and still getting into a groove, but they still sound great to me. I buy their CD and the six of us somehow stuff ourselves back into Feonix's compact car to be driven back home....

"Home," rather, as I'm only here for a week, and the little patch of this place that is "mine" is a piece of memory foam mattress on the floor, in a row of mattresses on the floor, in a ridiculously low-ceilinged attic with no AC. This bizarre room is known as the Garret, an almost-4th floor, and it's where most of the Keep's numerous guests stay, including me and GPaul. Upon arrival, you will be ushered up the three flights of stairs (the last one little more than a wooden ladder) and you will hunch, crawl, or scuttle to the floor mattress of your choosing-- the ceiling is only 4 feet tall. But there are clean linens, towels, and condoms, all provided free of charge by your generous hosts. In the morning, you'll see there is one skylight window, higher the rest of the ceiling, where you can stand up to put on your pants. You're the last one awake, so turn off the fan and be grateful that even without it, this feels better than Austin in August.

The sunflowers sway in the tiny front garden, and the Keep is its own little universe in what is otherwise a pretty rough, run-down neighborhood. The world beyond the porch is a harsh one, and at night, we hear the people and the sirens screaming in the street. At night, the rats come out, and I see who the sunflowers really belong to.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

you're so fragile, sometimes I don't know how to hold you

You are so fragile, sometimes I don't know how to hold you.  I want to be a soft place for you in a hard world, but sometimes  I find myself craggy, a beach of broken glass + pebbles instead of  sand. You don't deserve to wash up here.  When I feel lost + broken, I pull away to spare you, but it apparently  just makes things worse. We both fall backwards into silence + despair.  I want you to reach for me, but I've lost you too, now we're both gone.  How many times this has happened, how we talk it out, but begin again.  I'm afraid that we're too broken to not break each other.  Or I'm a bird, and you're a fish, and air + water will never mix.  Like you can never hear the bug + cricket song, sometimes I feel like you  can't hear me. Like nothing I say will settle. How can I make  you hear me with a shell to your ear, and dreams of having fins  in the ocean, when all I can offer you is a craggy windy brutal beach.  How I try to make you happy but I only make you cry.  How you're longing for the ocean but I can only give you sky. You are so fragile, sometimes I don't know how to hold you. I want to be a soft place for you in a hard world, but sometimes I find myself craggy, a beach of broken glass + pebbles instead of sand. You don't deserve to wash up here. 
When I feel lost + broken, I pull away to spare you, but it apparently just makes things worse. We both fall backwards into silence + despair.
I want you to reach for me, but I've lost you too, now we're both gone. How many times this has happened, how we talk it out, but begin again.
I'm afraid that we're too broken to not break each other.
Or I'm a bird, and you're a fish, and air + water will never mix.
Like you can never hear the bug + cricket song, sometimes I feel like you
can't hear me. Like nothing I say will settle. How can I make
you hear me with a shell to your ear, and dreams of having fins
in the ocean, when all I can offer you is a craggy windy brutal beach.
How I try to make you happy but I only make you cry.
How you're longing for the ocean but I can only give you sky.

Friday, May 22, 2015

the porch problem

when you think you are performing for someone but there is in fact no audience 

when you try to create something for yourself but can't stop thinking about the impossible potential audience 

why I never write anymore 

why I sing only during dishes

when will I learn 

or figure how to forgive myself


amy and I talked about the selfishness of artists and wondered if that's what it takes to make anything worthwhile. do I have to stop everything else? not that it is anything but I haven't written in weeks, months, years. what do I want anymore? can I blame the place or the job or just me?

a borrowed beer on the porch, a beer too often. a smuggled smoke, ashes again. 

these small sacrifices grow a larger harvest. they don't answer the questions or the problem. 

where can I go? my home under the hill? I've almost stopped believing. 

there's truly no place for me. 

the truth is I'm stuck again and I hate myself for it. the worser truth is that I don't see any way out. even though there are people out there waiting for me, wanting me to bring the fire, I can't believe that it's the right fire. I only have one flame and it's gone out. nothing to be done now. 

have another smoke, another drink, don't think.
the porch is the only place you'll ever be, there's nothing here but what you see. 

Friday, May 08, 2015

Friday, May 01, 2015

dream

light and dark
we lived in the trees
they wanted to destiny Christmas
hooting people
we did rituals to protect ourselves
costumes and performance
mama there telling me all the truth
mama leading us esp the new generation
a woman has been coming to our side seeking shelter and solace
reformed
we perform rituals to cleanse her

hash
shiner
(blood wine for dark purpose )

she's telling tales
we're stuck as the rifleman makes rounds
ruthless. shooting even our youngest without power
we are all women and old men
she's here in the very center with the most powerful ones
I left them downstairs to protect abatha (the most powerful of all of us, but stuck in a coma and helpless)
when I crawled away trip grabbed my hand and wouldn't let me. I worried they'd shoot me right then, that they'd see me.
but I made it up to the core
my mama in a trance
my costume comedic for joy and mirth (all straps and buckles, my
hairy legs and open skirt)
my clown calling

she tells us she misses that power
details the dark ritual
three times at least she fucked her dark lord, got pregnant and transplanted the fetus to one of our light wombs
abatha, so powerful. she claims that's why
and me
so that's why I was three weeks late
dry birth
covered in scales
made wicked from the start

but where is my power ?
I'm just a jester

so glad mama isn't here to hear
but she most know somehow....

and disgusted to know my true father
and that he wanted to fuck me



and laylee helped us protect the chrosmas things
sort and hide and disguise
morgan had made a beautiful story with wonderful illustrations

I would die to save it

Friday, April 24, 2015

hail to the ringworm queen

It's like a ton of bricks have hit me, realizing you're gone, Brittany. Working the last six days without you has been rocky, so please excuse me if I frumble. we're struggling to treat the worst wound ever seen in the history of apa and it's located in the place where you're missing. you are the heart, the strongest and longest running part of the cat team, and it's unlikely that we'll be able to find a transplant.

When I first arrived at Austin Pets Alive, I was thrown into the cattery mid-kitten season, alone, sink or swim, with only a smidgen of first-hand cat medical knowledge and zero shelter experience. Laylee introduced me to Brittany as a fellow introvert: the first thing I learned was that we shared anxieties, fears, sensitivities, sadness. And still I saw her whip out a smile for every visitor and watched her adopt out cats with such confidence, I knew I would be okay.

Brittany was always there to answer every question, gently offer advice, and quietly provide feedback without ever criticizing. Without her guidance, reassurance, and closing-time venting smoke breaks, I would've drowned. Each poop picture, each sketchy adopter, each dumb question, she would always try to help. Any time a situation was so draining, so painful, so difficult that i wanted to give up, i found myself asking "what would Brittany do?" every time, I found the answer was the most selfless option.

YES she would kiss anybody, funguys and scabies babies alike
YES she would stay up all night, just in case.
YES she would just go ahead and offer everybody a whole nother can.
and by golly if she didn't know the answer, she would go home and research until she was on the road to be the next expert

I saw her treat every life as equal, deserving, and precious, and I wanted to be that good.

But she wanted reassurance too. She never thought she was good enough, always wanted to be better. She set herself at such high standards that she set the standard for all of us. She wanted to be able to give them everything. She took the worst ones, she held and healed and coaxed and loved, and I saw them transform, just from being around her. How proud she was of each Dazey's grad, how she brought them to cattery when they cleared, each one a present at our door. each accomplishment, each life, and Brittany bubbling over with anticipation to put the soul on a name tag, and sometimes crying to say goodbye, although they were only one building over, never really gone.

you will never really be gone. your blood sweat tears soul in the walls, in the concrete, in the porous germy crevices of the blueboxes we so despise. you are laughing in our hearts, still creeping and scheming.

If you are not a magic ringworm glitter elf, then I do not believe in anything.

I wish I could remember everything, but I only have pieces:

when you taught me to set live traps for stray kittens and instead we caught possums
when virulent calicivirus struck our cattery
when humpty's eye exploded
when alvin's back fell off
when lucy's eye was leaking blood
when my whole skin went crazy
when yr whole skin went crazy
when i watched cats transform just being with you
when i was so anxious about deep cleaning after calici that you wrote 6 pages of step-by-step instructions for me
when you told me mikey was your new boyfriend and i wanted her to be mine before i even met her
when you saved roger outside on the sidewalk from running to the mouths of anxious dogs
when jeanne died in the street two days after she got adopted
when minerva died from pneumonia and i wasn't there to hold her
when i realized how much separate history we shared
when you introduced me to gracie lou, "USE EXTREME CAUTION," but you believed in her and helped me take her home

All these times I loved you.

how every cat's face
every cat's fate
how each question
how your reassurance saved us
how you would never abandon anyone ever
how the last thing you wanted was for anybody to suffer
how we were made to stay in our own buildings and pushed apart, i'm afraid, i'm sorry, forever
how i can't recall our last conversation
how i can't stop listening for your laugh

I don't know what I'm going to do without you. Who will compare leg hair in our cut off jeans in the sweltering summer in the height of kitten season? Who will snort with laughter at my terrible jokes, and whine about our angst for hours after closing time, and giggle "I'll grab your butt" so that I don't litter?
We will never replace you. But we can strive to honor you by smiling at strangers, kissing crusty cats, and treating every creature with kindness.


https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/Brittanysfund

Monday, April 13, 2015

I don't appreciate being called rude and I don't like being told what to do

Monday, February 16, 2015

dream space

I must've known it was a dreAm because I started writing everything down in the middle, needing to remember.  
four clans. a prophecy of course. 
they had been tracking us for years, they had seen it all and put the pieces together. 

I don't really know why I'm here or what's going on. we're gathering in a huuuuuuge auditorium, hundreds of people. I can't settle on a place to sit bc I'm all alone. I stumble into an area where no one is sitting and realize it must be reserved for the performance. woops. scuttle into a corner and settle in.  and I'm not wrong, there are male acrobats in shiny sequins who spring out somewhere along the way. so extreme and over tr top wow. later I'm fiddling with something (a mouse maybe?) and they see me and call me out. how??
why?? they escort me out or I'm trying to walk somewhere else and get intercepted. they put me on a spaceship with dozens of others. (mostly women?) I'm starting to see differences between the people, between the nations. two are more powerful, bigger, more numbers. one of these is flashy sequin decadence pop and the other is more nationalist harder military but still decadent in a different way. 
how to explain the others???? 
in the bathroom one woman showed me a picture of a harpy, "this is what you will be. this is what I am."
there is a sense of death surrounding them. they would rather kill each other than have the prophecy come to pass. 
and I do feel that I have something of a choice. people are pulling me like something can change. it's not set in stone. 
then she rescues me. I don't remember the details but she finds me in the crowd and smuggles me out to her own ship. at first I'm confused. later I'm in love. these are my people. and we are fugitives. 

later we get separated and I'm supposed to follow her by piloting my own ship which of course I've never done before. it's okay at first but I just
can't get the hang of it fast enough and I lose them. I think I crash and they find me. 
they're still trying to figure out if I am the one they think. they ask all kinds of strange and invasive questions. "did you have the clear coccidia?" and my family. supposedly my seemingly normal mother was a harpy too and could transform at will. And yet they're all being so nice, no one wants to upset me, no one hurts me. they must think I'm powerful. 

I have a mouse friend from somewhere. actually it might be a person in mouse form that I'm watching over. that other hRpy's daughter? she transformed her own child into a mouse to make a point. they would rather die than see the wrong future. 
I'm carrying her everywhere but she gets away from me. I crawl under a huge gate to get outside and find her but it's too late. there's a creature in the bushes crouching down.. I think maybe she's still out there but the creature smacks his jaw open closed one time and I see the tail inside. 


I know she'll find me. I'm writing everything down in orange crayon. I know she'll come back for me. 

Saturday, January 03, 2015

Thursday, January 01, 2015

revolution

make more art
consume more art
schedule yourself better

be yr own
girl gang

I can already feel the new year crackling even through the haze of being sick and the pounds of phlegm in my chest and head. it's alive! the year of freedom and bliss, we already called it.

we freed the fish and the fish freed us.

Monday, December 15, 2014

time to reset

just keep forgetting to take your pills.
follow the smell of piss till it's all clean. 
remember who you love, who loves you. 
expect that nothing will come back. 
there is only the cat and the ache in your back. 

Friday, December 05, 2014

hedgehog hugs

today I try to talk to you for some dumb reason (when will I learn?) and it's like talking to a wall. why even bother? but you give me one piece of insight-- "ask me tomorrow when I've had some time to process." "oh hey what did you think about what I said yesterday?" that I can do. 
tonight I snuggled up and why? made suicide jokes and you tell me I'm not allowed to do that. not allowed to die. but you wouldn't miss me for more than a minute, you'll readjust fine, I say. she's giving me looks but not telling, not until we aren't making eye contact and I'm nuzzled to her chest. "I would cry a *lot* and then probably cry randomly for weeks." I joke about how selfish she is, how she'd only be sad for herself since she's lost her only friend.
when she gets up to go take her pills, "oh and if you want proof, that's why I was randomly crying this morning." but why? "because I worry about you." even though I told you I wouldn't talk about it, you still remember. 
and just when I think I've got you pegged, when I've given up, drawn the line, you always get me. the things you actually do remember, what you choose to care about. 
you keep saying we are too different, totally different personality types, just two hedgehogs hurting when they hug. on some level, maybe you're right, but we haven't even be friends for any time at all, we hardly know each other. and if it were only hurt then why are we so soft?

Sunday, November 30, 2014

step away from my light, i need shine

always you want me to forget, try to make me. I just want to talk, I have really good ideas. I believe we could write! I believe you have the vision and I have the craft! or maybe the other way around, we'll have to work out the details. but don't you want to see?? why not even try?

and so I should be done after all this. how many times I put it forward.

you are not the whipping girl unless you want to be. I feel you beg for a reaction, the one you've gotten before. I feel like I'm the creep but I know you know the game. so maybe sometimes I tickle too much and go too far. I don't mean any harm. I want the cuddles and the laughs and the silly. yes the vulnerable. and this is all you'll give me- a little bit of soft skin here and there. but it's not your tummy I really want; it's your heart. if I can find the soft parts maybe you will open up and talk to me. but always you leave, or never start.

tomorrow is a new day, as always. but tomorrow I'm moving and really things will change. I've promised Gracie Lou it will be just us two girls, and I meant it. I'm really cutting this out, unless you don't consent it: truth, honor, trust, compassion. I require so little. I have made do with giggle cuddle coffee time but I don't need it anymore. it all hurts too much without the rest.

you don't want me to cook brunch with you, you can't put me to the test.

I'm bigger I'm better I'm more than you will ever know. I have to make it so.

I am not so cruel.
not as you, not as you think.
but maybe as desperate.


yr failure is not what I want but I'm afraid of its certainty. I need you to talk and ACT and get it together before the worst thing happens. I don't want you on the street or worse. you say you don't need this house? you don't need the safety net? I would love for you to fly from here but I don't see how. not now. maybe your debt is invisible to you, maybe that's my fault. if you don't need us then go on. we want only the best.


what do you want, when you do and when you don't?  
is it just a niceness of your debt, to keep afloat?

if you are the whipping girl, then maybe I'm at fault. 
you joke and pose so pretty: your sugar makes me salt.

you juggle up to jester, and want rounds for the fall. 
you'll never say you dropped one, unless we can recall.

if you are the whipping girl, then what have we done wrong? 
we fell into a dance you threw and got lost in its song.

I know you want attention, kitty, just let me pet your throat. 
be calm and still and open up, and sing before you choke.

if you are the whipping girl, then I've confused the past. 
tell me what it said to you and make the new one last.

after nights when I give up, you call me in the morning: 
meow. meow. meow. the constant caterwauling.

Saturday, October 04, 2014

is that your glass heart clinking?

if I tend to write only when I'm alone, then I'm never gonna write anything again living in this damn co-op. sometimes in the shower or in the car, I have ideas, but there's so much jumbled into my head immediately stepping out of those places and into this confusion called my home. generally I really like living here, the hustle and bustle, interacting with so many different people on a daily basis, priding myself on figuring out these puzzles, these people, and getting them to talk. HA! it's true, I won't deny there's a little bit of skill there. but at the end of the day, who makes me talk? who wants to know my ins and outs, downs and ups, tos and fros? none of these people can read my subtle signals, though a couple can see the larger signs-- when I'm drinking more than enough, when I'm overly critical of something small, when I've been hiding in my room for days. and if and when they see it, it's so easy to run away, don't worry, it's nothing, I'm fine, I'll be in my room with the pillow and the cat. they leave me alone like I want them to. but you know better-- you understand the chase. you know the chase as well as I do. I'm practicing a small pursuit on all these people every day, how can they not understand? but they don't want to work on a puzzle, or find that the end reward is no good thing. I try so hard so often to be easy, kind, generous, considerate, patient, amusing, good. I try too much, I unwind the web so smooth, make it all gentle, and they don't see the handiwork. do you know how I am a new creature for every person? how I will mold to fit and nestle in your comfort zone? is it so well done that no one cares enough to talk when I've hit bottom? but this is not new, even though the place and people are. I insist on distancing myself (and my truth, and my heart, and my hurt) from even my friends, then I'm dead and dumb when they can't connect. did I make it one way? I'm convinced it's that they never ask, never ask right, don't really want to know, rather than that I am a closed door with impossible locks. they think animal rescue is my life's work and that I love cats maybe because they're cute or because I'm so good and selfless or because I'm a future hoarder of more than paper. they don't know that I love cats because I hate myself.
why does the truth always sound so dumb?


listening to: xiu xiu - ale

Wednesday, August 06, 2014

nap dream

brother cats (r9 litter??) ok my dream

there are kids playing a game that seems like they're taking very seriously. everyone acts upset and weird when they "come back" and the chip they win is the wrong color.  they are actually disaplearing into an alternate world disguise as a tv show when they play ??? they're teying to hint at something but i can't digure it out.

board game and tv. they are playing at the board, they disappear, I'm watching a tv show that is really the game -- it's set up and then their solutions. i dont realize that it's not a game at all, but an urgent quest which is why they take it so seriously.

there's a group or three or four creeper dudes that keep showing up whenever the game is going on, or right near the end. they are talking about a house vote thats gonna happen or some sort of big decision. a type of "learning" or discipline or religion??? that they want to establish in the coop. i make a skeptical or negative comment and they react strangely-- calm and somewhat logical, asking so many questions and calling me a close minded business very nicely. their coldness creeps me out every time.

i am figuring out that something strange is going on but i don't know what or how to fix it. i need to talk to Ian or somebody but where ?? i ask her to come outside and she completely pounces. we start hardcore making out on the ground, shes got my shirt pushed up and were tearing at each other. I've forgotten what I came here to tell her, it's all encompassing and wonderful. suddenly there's laylee telling us that the whole coop can see us and we need to het out of there. i feel like i see the creeper dudes pale faces judging me through the window. when we get inside somehow its too late, I've missed the window to talk and now everyone's here again.

going to the theatre to pick up the kids from their show/game and its raining, they're not there, the parking lot is empty except for one car with the doors open. (or the shell if a car, a double open hooded two seat.) i walk up and find a terrified kitten sitting there on the seat, hissing and spittig and so afraid. i realize its a cat i know, Reginald, and i call him by name, wrap him up and take him home with me. bit he's not acting like himself, and where are his brothers and sisters i took to the show? i being him home and he immediately hides under a bench where another brother, tiny rajan, instantly hisses, and i think they don't recognize each other. slowly somehow the clues (there must've been more clues) come together and i realize this is not the cat i think it is, but some other brother, new, and everyone else is stuck somewhere. he starts to yowl as then actually begins speaking, mentions that rajan had a sore on his  tongue -- that's why he hissed! to show the ulcer that is not truly an ulcer but a scary magic bad thing. The lead creep is showing interest in me and this cat sufdenly and he doesn't know that he shouldn't speak. i grab him up and start walking briskly out the door, talking with him since he doesn't know to stop and this creep wants him for who knows what. i dont know where to go thats safe. i walk into my parents room but they're clumping around leaving on a trip. I'm looking for Ian and calling her nme but i can't find her. panic panic i Abe no idea how I will save the cats and not let the coop kingdom fall.


then the damn dinner bell rings. even after waking up i still have a sense of urgency, of going back to the world, of figuring it out.

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Austra concerts -- at least two or three. We meet them outside the stage door in the first. In the second I am confident -- volunteer or improvize? Dancing witching every audience member -- sprinkling magic on their heads.. are they sitting down? It's weirdly calm. Somehow Brian is the most important -- the top of his head is shaved, only in the front, and green dye on the sides. Heavy eyeliner and super magic. We talk and something important happens. Third concert, somehow I miss the end. Do I fall asleep? Am I called outside by something else? All this part of the dream looks dark but feels light, good. Sparkly.

another dream working in the cattery, but there are many people who work with me. someone is missing one day and i wonder what is going on. he is the son of important people. maybe not king and queen but the equivalent? he gets blamed for a wet towel that i know is my fault but i don't say anything and then feel horribly guilty when he is gone the next day. then he comes back, quiet and reserved, having seen more harm than good.
Wendy is the queen.
someone dies or disappears in their dorm/apartment. young, tragic, horrible, a warning. we all have to be more careful.
a movie -- do i actually watch it or just know about it? bizarrre sexual undertones (or overtones) and i'm drawn to it and freaked out at the same time. another stage door area -- a man is standing at the top of the steps in an open doorway and the (hopeful?) cast is crowding around for the meeting. the part of Frog Man is obvious. what am i doing there, though?
mainly i have been an observer up to now, but strange things start happening that indicate i'm being pulled towards center. a man driving by craning to see me, with a picture of my granny taped to his sun visor.
someone gives me a locket? somehow i have a secret locket. it is not easy to open but when i do, i see two faces that are really important. i don't remember why. is one me?
someone teaches me how to get free quarters from the vending machine by putting in bottle caps and then pushing the change return button. i get $8 in quarters and i'm walking away when they all swoop in and whisk me away to a secret meeting in their lair.
wendy is the leader. the others are some people i recognize -- the boy from work at the cattery, and his brother, and some other people who i thought were strangers that have apparently been following me. we are laying out the plan. wendy introduces me as the newest member of the team. later in private, she indicates that the whole team is actually my protection -- they just don't know it yet. i am the target but i don't know why. i show her the locket but the pictures are gone. it doesn't matter -- she knew the faces anyway. she has set the wheels in motion and we're on the way. somehow i feel safer now than i did before i knew i was in danger.
there is some question with the boy from the cattery. he evades directly answering his parents and shuffles around. his brother and i are sitting separately, secret smiles and twinkling eyes. i tell him what i know: he was gone from the cattery right before that girl was killed. of course he's not hte killer but we know he knew her. the brother jumps in to add this information to the slough of accusations, without revealing that i provided this information, and i am grateful. i feel guilty again, but i also feel that somehow i'm helping him -- i want him to be safe.
i'm seeing weird sexual tensions of all kinds. trying to be a matchmaker?

I wake up from this dream a number of times, but I'm able to ease back in. I sleep until 1 in the afternoon because I don't want it to end. In writing it looks like a stressful dream, but the having it was really beautiful and calm. Everything felt right somehow -- everything was going in the right direction, I was on the right path. The last time I go back to sleep I think I'm still half awake and maybe making up some of the story, rather than genuinely dreaming it all. But that felt great too and the worst part was waking up and not being able to remember it all. This dream would be a really wonderful story if it weren't now full of holes. I wish I could imagine these sorts of things while I'm awake. I want to write it all.

Saturday, June 21, 2014

a note under a door

we are not easy, but sometimes it feels that way.
i, especially, am a great pretender.
sam thanked me for my warmth and kindess but
russ saw the demon in my right eye, the beast
let loose by the queer bomb. now there's no
looking back. i wanted to crack each shell so
slowly that its inhabitant would hardly notice
till they found themselves blinking at the sun.
i wanted to draw each one out, and in turn, be
drawn out myself. it's not easy; i am not what
i seem. sometimes i have let too much loose
without being asked, without coaxing and without
protection. how much i want to be the little
new chick in the spring sun. but instead, just
the worm. it's hard to remember to stay under
ground. i don't want to hurt, but do, and have
done. and so i remember, and so i can't stay,
but you'll see i leave a line open, just in case,
for the brave. sometimes it will be easy, and
sometimes it will not. sometimes it only gets
worse. but if i wait here, on the surface, i
will get burned, a sidewalk worm. it would be
easy. maybe i'll fry.
on the other hand, there is this egg with a cool
hard shell. (inside, there is a light and a warmth,
i know.) i would love to be there when you
hatch, but the worm does not want to be 
the swan's first meal, but can see no other way,
not from the surface. and so here is this line,
these lines, and that's it. forget, or do as
you see fit. we can't do it for you.