2006-01-01
in my aunt's house on new year's day
In my aunt's house on new year's day, I sit at the computer. Everybody is still asleep. Silly String coats the chair like the beads behind my eyes (especially when I rub them). Plastic champagne glasses are stacked on the TV. The Christmas tree keeps shedding. The room is so quiet, I can hear the fridge humming. Or maybe it's the music inside me.
On the bookshelf is a folded print-out. It says, "Vengenance is just a cheap form of grief." Under it, a stuffed lion smiles at nothing. There's a giant tube of Glue Stic and jar from Freedom Foods ("Liberate Your Taste Buds") stuffed with paper clips. Dust spins in a beam of sunlight. I scan the shelf for a book to read and find only the PhotoSourceBook and Scholastic Teaching Resources from Fall 2002.
I wonder how long this stuff has sat here. And I wonder if it will still be here next year...like me.
f-i-n at 11:48 a.m.