Briar
By Laure-Anne Bosselaar
A friend betrayed me yesterday.
I loved him for his hungers
and awkward flat feet
he stomped as if he wanted to leave
a mark everywhere he went.
I never told him how that stomping
moved me, the same sad way
this clumsy briar does,
waving, trying to be noticed
in the dust of a Boston off-ramp.
My friend betrayed me
for a fast mark, a few gasps around
a spilled secret no bigger
than a briar's thorn.
I'm in one of the cars the off-
ramp jams into town, and because
it would cause horn-blasting
rage, and because for each betrayal
we lose a little fervor, I don't
step out to tear a leaf
from the briar to keep
in a book -- his book -- in which
he wrote Your friend, always.
Lost secrets, friends, fervors --
we are made of this dust.
Let briars grow from it, and bloom
--------
LJ is being impossible tonight and after spending more than an hour trying to read my friends list, which I had not checked since last night, I gave up. Have also given up answering comments for the night and trying to get back to posts I meant to comment on from earlier. So if you can read this, and you can actually get to a comment screen, and something wonderful or terrible or strange or interesting happened to you or near you or you just want to link to it, please do so here!
And I am sorry I suck so much about remembering to check my portal page/being able to get to my portal page to find out whose birthdays I am missing. I think that from now on I shall only send out birthday greetings to RL friends whose dates I know independently of LiveJournal, because I am constantly afraid I have hurt someone's feelings. Though I am this way forgetting with certain family members and local friends too -- just ask them!
Sorry about my Finding Neverland wail earlier; I shall talk about how utterly wonderful it is tomorrow, after seeing the last scene of the movie (since apparently we only lost about ten minutes, so I really should not complain about having gotten to see 99% of the movie for free, but I will be in a better frame of mind about that when I see the other 1%). Possibly the best film I've seen this year, though I need to figure out how much other films I've seen this year are shaping how I watch this one. It's wonderful that the most recent Peter Pan came out so near to this one because they complement each other in interesting ways.
I did run into Target since I got out of the movie early and discovered that there is stretch velvet on sale. I love being a tacky girl because it means I get to wear soft comfy clothes all the time. I swear I would wear velour sweats to synagogue if I thought my parents would not disown me.
*singing, because of Peter Pan* Never smile at a crocodile...
Copperheads, the only sort of poisonous snake that I have ever seen in the wild, though we heard rattlesnakes in national parks when we were driving west last year.
An African plated lizard hiding from his heat lamps.
Recently-hatched tortoises behind glass in the incubation room.
Gila Monsters! That is possibly my favorite animal name.
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