in honor

I meant to post this actually on the twelfth, but I guess now is better than never.


September Twelfth, 2001

Two caught on film who hurtle
from the eighty-second floor,
choosing between a fireball
and to jump holding hands,

aren't us. I wake beside you,
stretch, scratch, taste the air,
the incredible joy of coffee
and the morning light.

Alive, we open eyelids
on our pitiful share of time,
we bubbles rising and bursting
in a boiling pot.

X. J. Kennedy



In other news, my mom's family has been doing an annual (ish) beach week for several years, and this is the first time I've been able to come to any part of it. My mom and I are only down here in Kitty Hawk for one night, but it's been awesome. We drove straight to my cousin Staples's place for a big crab picking party, then helped clean up and came over to the house where we're staying with three of my uncles (Bobby, John, and Bud,) and my aunt Mereme. Uncle Bobby almost immediately gave me a shot of vodka and then the three of them started educating me about music from their youth--mostly by Ry Cooder. I had never heard of him, but he's pretty fantastic. Uncle Bobby and my mom and I went for a walk on the beach after dark, and we found patches of phosphorescence all down the beach. Every time we kicked the sand in one of the patches it would light up green. I've only seen the sand do that once before, in high school, and I've been looking for it ever since. My uncle had never seen it at all. I hope there's someone that predicts its occurrence so I can plan a trip someday to coincide.