Question

"How many people have you fallen for?"
"Too many."
"And how many is that?"
"One."

Unromantic

Here is the story of my parents' engagement: my mom proposed.  Or, rather, she told my dad that unless he married her, she wanted to date other men.  He went for a walk, came back, and said, "Okay, let's get married."

My parents tell this story over and over, laughing at how unromantic, how like her, how like them.  They've been married for almost thirty years.

When I told the boy I was in love with this story, he said, "That's beautiful."

"What?" I said, "No, it's not."

"Yes it is.  All he needed was a walk, and then he knew."

Nombrarte

No el poema de tu ausencia,

sólo un dibujo, una grieta en un muro,

algo en el viento, un sabor amargo.

-Alejandra Pizarnik, "Nombrarte"

My rough translation:

"Naming you"

Not the poem of your absence,

only a drawing, a crack in a wall,

something in the wind, a bitter taste.

Life

"[I]t is a salient feature of human life, as the novels present it, that it is lived only once, and in one direction."
-Martha Nussbaum, "Love's Knowledge"

Surprise & Delight

“If you set out to write a poem about two dogs fucking, and you write a poem about two dogs fucking, then you’ve written a poem about two dogs fucking.”

-Gerald Stern

I found this in a George Saunders essay.  The point being, good writing should take the writer (and reader) somewhere they didn't expect to arrive.

The cute guy at Mustard's

This is an account of the most perfect and idealized relationship of my life: my exchanges with the cute guy at Mustard’s.  I have been back home for a month and have visited my old greasy, delicious haunt once.  The cute guy was not there.  I'm terrified to go back and learn what is likely the truth: I've lost him.

I do know the cute guy at Mustards’ name. I do not call him by his name. I learned his name by accident, when another guy who worked at the hotdog/burger joint Mustard’s Last Stand called him by name and I overheard. It’s Isaac, but that doesn’t matter unless someday I come back and he’s not working there one time too many and I have to ask the person taking my order if Isaac is still around. Until then, he will always be, variously, the cute guy at Mustard’s, the cute Latino guy at Mustard’s, the Mustard’s guy, and maybe the love of my life.

That word has been my whole life

"I like the word 'jazz'! That word has been my whole life. I understand the cats when they take exception to the name... But to me, that's my whole life."
-Dexter Gordon