"it's not dark enough yet", she said, and pushed him hard in the back. how had he thought that this would be a good idea? the moon pushed it's way through the trees overhead and some sort of night bird clucked when they got too close to the nest. "i'm hungry," he said. the moonlight silver reached the ground of the old hill. she pulled half a loaf of bread out of her bag.
"that's all you brought?"
"it's got raisins in it."
the moon howled. so did the wolves.
it suddenly seemed like a bad idea, a halloween visit to this place.
sets down the guitar
"dude, we're just writing songs," he said, and his head glanced off of the idea like a rock wall. "there is no agenda. no money. no marketing analysis of each track, spending millions to figure out which ones will play well on the radio- we're just trying to write songs. and some times that is fucking hard."
picks up the guitar
if you peek under the edge of the world
you'll see an upside down hole
dug by and leading into a burrow occupied by
the legendary
head-footed
snarl-proofed
upside-downed
ground hog.
he will tell you
your upside-down future
and your upside-down past,
but don't you worry
because when you turn something
right-side-up
you never know
how gravity
will make it feel.
i want hip-swinging rock n' roll
black n' white tv
summer mountains
and
sharks' teeth
the way it felt when we skinned our knees
playing when we were young
peeling off our scabs
being kids again
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
the story of saturn and the moon
"sometimes," said the boy, "i just want to be reunited with my guitar. when i've been away so long, and i can't make any songs, i get to be a little moody."
"well," replied the girl, "i'm shaped like a guitar."
the big moon is bright, but not full.
you're fussy, moon, always moving around the sky. why can't you stay in one place?
why can't you stay in one shape?
why can't the man in the moon look like a man at all?
saturn is so small from here, that it is easy to mistake it for a bright star.
does saturn ever move in retrograde?
don't we all sometimes move in retrograde?
important things to know about the orbits of humans:
they have little choice over the things around which they are in orbit. sometimes space and time are playing a game with them, and sometimes love (originally believed to be a comet, but now known to be a cosmically dense collection of souls and spirits)changes the chemical make-up of just-about-the-universe. the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin are far more influential than the brain.
they are beautiful. but only in this re-definition of the word:
saturn spins and shouts "you are beautiful! you are beautiful because you don't spin like me, and look at your color- what is that color called?"
the moon- "grey. i am rock. this is the color of the inside of rock. i am solid and unexciteable. i am grey."
saturn- "don't be so down. let me tell you a story."
"argh," sighed the moon. "another story."
"renetta was a girl. she was the fourth daughter of seven, and the 12th of 23 children overall. the family frenelle. renetta frenelle."
"a family that large, it would be impossible to remember all of the names," remarked the moon, snappily.
"don't get grouchy. it's only important that you know about renetta's large family, not that you know how her parent's kept them straight. for all i know, they were ALL named renetta."
"those are the first capital letters you have spoken to me all night," said the moon.
"maybe that is true," replied saturn. "but i only did so to raise the stakes of our conversation. the family frenelle was famous for the radishes they farmed. you see, where they existed, radishes were a delicacy, so much more flavorful than any other food on their planet."
"bah! earth has cheese and root beer and gummy worms," blasted the moon.
"there was something, though, that was different about the frenelle's planet that made it extraordinary..." continued saturn.
"and what is that?" asked the moon. "Do the radishes taste like maple candy?"
"the radishes taste like radishes," replied saturn. "no, what made their planet different was something more incredible. tell me the colors of all the eyes you've seen."
"well, that's easy," said the moon. "Brown, blue, and green."
"of course," replied saturn.
"I see millions of eyes every day," replied the moon.
"on renetta's planet, nobody had brown eyes," whispered saturn.
"well that's not very exciting," complained the moon. "everyone with blue and green eyes. that is even more boring than here!"
"ah, but you didn't let me finish," said saturn, with a scowl. "on renetta's planet, the only color your eyes couldn't be was brown. every other color, including the one's we can't imagine, was fair game. but not brown. every member of renetta's family had the same color eyes- dark emerald with veins of copper and gabbro. in fact, there were so many beautiful green eyes in her family, that no one paid them any mind. and with twelve girls to choose from, all with the same colored eyes, what would set her apart from her sisters?"
"ummmm, i don't know," hummed the moon. he was looking at the stars. he felt a deliberate poking on his dark side. saturn was jamming his finger into the moon's back.
"you need to this to this part. this part is important." saturn was serious, now. "one day, on the frenelle farm, a strange ship landed. renetta, working late in the fields, was the only one around to watch as a little door opened, and a ladder descended."
"this is sounding familiar," wooed the moon, scratching at the lunar rovers left behind on his scalp.
"and down the ladder," continued saturn, "came a man. from earth. which renetta had never heard of before. n-a-s-a, his shoulder patch read. at first. she thought he had one shiny black eye in the middle of his shiny white head. and then, when he lifted the visor, she realized that it wasn't his head at all, but a helmet, protecting the space man within. she gazed through the glass bubble between her and the man-" saturn paused, and spun in space to look towards renetta's planet.
"you don't remember the end, do you?" accused the moon. "you always forget the ends of the stories."
"-and she looked straight into eyes the color of which she could not name, and had never seen before. of all the colors and variations of colors that she had seen, this had somehow never existed for her. the space man, on the other side of his bubble, was equally mesmerized by the riches of renetta's eyes. the copper veins seemed to dance like fault lines. the gabbro looked as old and wise as the earth. the emerald, new and clear and intelligent. they could not take their eyes off of one another. they fell deeply in love, but that is another story for another night."
the moon was frustrated. he needed to know, even though it should have been obvious. "what color were his eyes?" she shouted. "what color were the spaceman's eyes?!"
saturn took a moment, poked the moon between the eyes, and touched the moondust to her forehead.
"boring muddy brown," she said, kissing the moon the cheek and zooming off into space.
"well," replied the girl, "i'm shaped like a guitar."
the big moon is bright, but not full.
you're fussy, moon, always moving around the sky. why can't you stay in one place?
why can't you stay in one shape?
why can't the man in the moon look like a man at all?
saturn is so small from here, that it is easy to mistake it for a bright star.
does saturn ever move in retrograde?
don't we all sometimes move in retrograde?
important things to know about the orbits of humans:
they have little choice over the things around which they are in orbit. sometimes space and time are playing a game with them, and sometimes love (originally believed to be a comet, but now known to be a cosmically dense collection of souls and spirits)changes the chemical make-up of just-about-the-universe. the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin are far more influential than the brain.
they are beautiful. but only in this re-definition of the word:
saturn spins and shouts "you are beautiful! you are beautiful because you don't spin like me, and look at your color- what is that color called?"
the moon- "grey. i am rock. this is the color of the inside of rock. i am solid and unexciteable. i am grey."
saturn- "don't be so down. let me tell you a story."
"argh," sighed the moon. "another story."
"renetta was a girl. she was the fourth daughter of seven, and the 12th of 23 children overall. the family frenelle. renetta frenelle."
"a family that large, it would be impossible to remember all of the names," remarked the moon, snappily.
"don't get grouchy. it's only important that you know about renetta's large family, not that you know how her parent's kept them straight. for all i know, they were ALL named renetta."
"those are the first capital letters you have spoken to me all night," said the moon.
"maybe that is true," replied saturn. "but i only did so to raise the stakes of our conversation. the family frenelle was famous for the radishes they farmed. you see, where they existed, radishes were a delicacy, so much more flavorful than any other food on their planet."
"bah! earth has cheese and root beer and gummy worms," blasted the moon.
"there was something, though, that was different about the frenelle's planet that made it extraordinary..." continued saturn.
"and what is that?" asked the moon. "Do the radishes taste like maple candy?"
"the radishes taste like radishes," replied saturn. "no, what made their planet different was something more incredible. tell me the colors of all the eyes you've seen."
"well, that's easy," said the moon. "Brown, blue, and green."
"of course," replied saturn.
"I see millions of eyes every day," replied the moon.
"on renetta's planet, nobody had brown eyes," whispered saturn.
"well that's not very exciting," complained the moon. "everyone with blue and green eyes. that is even more boring than here!"
"ah, but you didn't let me finish," said saturn, with a scowl. "on renetta's planet, the only color your eyes couldn't be was brown. every other color, including the one's we can't imagine, was fair game. but not brown. every member of renetta's family had the same color eyes- dark emerald with veins of copper and gabbro. in fact, there were so many beautiful green eyes in her family, that no one paid them any mind. and with twelve girls to choose from, all with the same colored eyes, what would set her apart from her sisters?"
"ummmm, i don't know," hummed the moon. he was looking at the stars. he felt a deliberate poking on his dark side. saturn was jamming his finger into the moon's back.
"you need to this to this part. this part is important." saturn was serious, now. "one day, on the frenelle farm, a strange ship landed. renetta, working late in the fields, was the only one around to watch as a little door opened, and a ladder descended."
"this is sounding familiar," wooed the moon, scratching at the lunar rovers left behind on his scalp.
"and down the ladder," continued saturn, "came a man. from earth. which renetta had never heard of before. n-a-s-a, his shoulder patch read. at first. she thought he had one shiny black eye in the middle of his shiny white head. and then, when he lifted the visor, she realized that it wasn't his head at all, but a helmet, protecting the space man within. she gazed through the glass bubble between her and the man-" saturn paused, and spun in space to look towards renetta's planet.
"you don't remember the end, do you?" accused the moon. "you always forget the ends of the stories."
"-and she looked straight into eyes the color of which she could not name, and had never seen before. of all the colors and variations of colors that she had seen, this had somehow never existed for her. the space man, on the other side of his bubble, was equally mesmerized by the riches of renetta's eyes. the copper veins seemed to dance like fault lines. the gabbro looked as old and wise as the earth. the emerald, new and clear and intelligent. they could not take their eyes off of one another. they fell deeply in love, but that is another story for another night."
the moon was frustrated. he needed to know, even though it should have been obvious. "what color were his eyes?" she shouted. "what color were the spaceman's eyes?!"
saturn took a moment, poked the moon between the eyes, and touched the moondust to her forehead.
"boring muddy brown," she said, kissing the moon the cheek and zooming off into space.
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