Bruce

See this girl?
Now this one
is a troublemaker

Sometimes she's nice to me
and sometimes she's mean
I don't know why

I'm going to find you a husband
before you move out
of this building

If you bring a boy home
then change your mind
I'll get him out of here

I always take care
of the women in this building

You see, this poem here
you put yourself into this poem
I can tell it's real

You should write a poem about me
it better come from here (the heart)

See this girl?
She's writing a poem about me
I'm still waiting

How is your grandmother?
Your grandmother,
you went to visit her

Poetry Paper

a line
is just a line
and a word a word

my father
speaks in rhymes
and the Sandman in verse

Take me away
dreamer of dreams
to a place half-known

with analysis
forbidden
til morning

Marbim B'Simcha

Happy new month! Today is the first day of the Hebrew month of Adar, a month whose arrival acts as an encouragement to increase in joy/happiness.

What might you do intentionally this month to increase happiness for yourself and in the world? Friends' ideas so far include eating and drinking exactly what you want, giving to the poor, giving gifts to each other, and, yes, fart jokes. I hope to write or upload a little something here each day.

Here is one of today's joys:



Download Billy Wylder's single "Vineyard" for free here. And watch the actual music video here! Avi Salloway, featured musician in the band, is an acquaintance of mine from the Seeds of Peace International Camp in Summer 2012.

Look

You might try to find me
in all of my curves
and crevices

Look instead
in the brick patio park
with the benches and the trees

In response to Alan S. B.

the sun
lights upon
the sediment
collecting in our hearts

I did not realize
that green things
could still grow there

MLK Day

She cuts her toenails stands up strikes a dramatic pose
Ready to visit some old people

Guest post

My friend writes
the shortest
poems
of anyone
I know.
They go as long as
this
and then
they
stop.

--Joel Knopf (www.meltsinyourmind.com)

Someday

When we sing and rock in our chairs your voice sounds louder then softer then louder again like the closeness of the ground with each whoosh downwards of the swing in the park where I contemplated the relative heights of trees and houses and thought I could live there for sure I could live in that house someday

There was that time you sat down next to me during services and I borrowed a siddur from you and then when I gave it back at the end I kissed it and then you kissed it before putting it away and I thought to myself that's the only kiss we'll ever know and I wrote down that line because it sounded like a good ending to a story

I want to whirl in my dresses in front of you pull them out of the closet toss them on my bed and put them on one by one so there would finally be someone to share in my childish vanity at which point it wouldn't really be vanity any more it would be something about glory and joy in a ridiculous way and maybe you'd even get up from where you'd be sitting in a chair and hug me

And then after hugging we could sit opposite each other on the floor or maybe on the couch if our backs were tired and look at each other for a while and I could tell you about the divinity school eye contact course description I had just read that said that no matter which culture you're talking about people only really look at each other for more than ten seconds at a time if they're about to fight or if they're lovers and then you'd hit me over the head with a pillow as a joke

It's best if you interpret all of my rambling about graduate school applications and the soda bottles lined up on my counter tonight that I took home from yeshiva because no one else took them although I don't even drink diet soda as serving the phatic function which means that those sentences can be described as fulfilling the requirement of "meein chatima samuch lchatima" which means that anything directly preceding With Love, Molly is just another way of saying the same thing

Oh

I notice a space inside my ribcage
I wasn't aware of it a minute ago
something is sinking there
or maybe withdrawing
that's a better word
I notice
that I've kinda lost the will
to do stuff
And I think, oh
this is the feeling
you were thinking of
when you said you didn't want
to hurt me

Collage

Where the sea
becomes the night sky
and the sky the sea

and pairs of boots
turn into the stars

and cologne the comets