10:13 a.m. - January 31, 2003
Pre-empted and bothered but I will recover and reschedule and wash my windows inside and out, to lose myself in thought and the pleasant aroma of vinegar
My poetry reading has been pre-empted by what is surely a stringy-haired, pot-smoking, leftover vegetarian hippy or hippy wannabe, lesbian-feminist-separatist neo-Californian anti-war activist who undoubtedly will share poetry along the lines of
If George W. Bush were a vehicle
he'd be an SUV with tinted
windshield through which
his driver could not see
and tinted headlights
incapable
of piercing the gloom
This would not stop him
from criscrossing the countryside
at midnight
driverless
a trail of
small flattened cars and animals
stretched behind him, drawing flies.
Or some drivel like that instead of the poems I wrote last night, issued like an aneurysm across my paper. My revised reading is March 15 and how could I be pushy with Maria and her British accent, argue that war is war but the chances of me reading my poetry far more rare? I said I understand calmly and without pouting though I thought Yeah, this has cast a shadow on my morning and then realized No, my morning is dark already and there is no light for a shadow. So Twids, it's not February but March and thus, the proto-invitation is rescinded. Be a good sport, Jason, be a good sport.
I am washing windows today. There are 29, not including the panes on the front door. I shall be occupied and this will lift the doldrums, working, working, working.
