Friday, February 27, 2009

Eleganfanticisimalism.*

*See the Oxford Ethereal Dictionary for definition.
Today I visited the best second-hand bookstore in the world. Powell's is a close second. But Powell's don't have no cats. Anyways, there was this ridiculously fantastic book that had historically important cat lovers compared to dog lovers, advice on beard cultivation (very important to me as a female), and hobo written symbols.

For example, a diagonal line (bottom left to top right) with three vertical lines through it means "people here won't like you and will tell you to go to hell". Three small circles in a horizontal row means "hobo coin taken here". Just in case you need to communicate with the hobos.

People Digits.

There are hands
limp
loose
and empty.
My mother's have always been harsh with water and soap
cleaning grease from our family pots and pans.
But it's not her fault.
I write words nothing like iambs.
I'm not like that.
One day
i will write you songs
perfect, ordered, green and growing.
But this is life
and it is not
perfect as I hoped it to be.
I weave stories and imposters
waiting for them to unravel later.
They waited till hatching season came
to procreate.
There are hands
carrying weight
elegant
vicious
and tired.

2 comments:

Corissa Joy said...

I WANT TO LEARN THE HOBO LANGUAGE!
I like this :]
And yes, Powell's is amazing.

Grace Halliday said...

I like your words.