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Monday, November 16, 2009

Weird Cookies and a Weyant Poem



Just had a weird error message about cookies pop up that took some time to unravel. I have trust issues with technology and believe that following Google's instructions probably caused some other problem somewhere of which I won't be aware for days or weeks to come.

I'm on my last day of grading binges to clear out my Comp I papers. I still have World Lit research papers to grade, but I have week left to get those done before the Tksgiving break (my goal). I find myself hoarding links to blogs I want to re-read with more time and stacking books in precarious piles on the to-read shelf.

It is great when life is full, but I struggle to learn the balancing act that will prevent burning out again.

I'll leave you with a poem from Karen Weyant's beautiful chapbook Stealing Dust, a book I read months ago and didn't have a chance to write about here.

Joyride

The night after a three-point turn on a test
gave her a driver's license, my best friend
borrowed her mother's car, missed the turn
at Potter's Grove, plowed into a cornfield.
In the passenger's seat, I laughed
giving directions, back wheels spinning
through October mud and ears bent low,
silk brown and damp. That's how
it was like with us: two girls always threatening
to leave what we called a one-stoplight town,
when in fact there were three, often green,
short-circuited, a squirrel chewing through
a stray wire, a storm snapping a loose cable
in two. It should have been easy,
but there was always a check engine light,
a crack in the window, a rear tire worn raw.
It took us years to figure it all out --
all we needed to do was throw a suitcase
in the backseat, tilt the rearview window away,
so we couldn't see what fell behind us:
strings of stores sealed tight with plywood,
street lights dull, even in the darkest of dusks.



Support a Poet: Buy or Borrow this book today
Stealing Dust
Karen J. Weyant
Finishing Line Press, 2009

2 comments:

Karen J. Weyant said...

Hi Sandy -- Thanks for the shout out! After the day I have been having, I needed this! :)

Sandy Longhorn said...

K., glad it helped! This poem took me way back down memory lane as so many of your poems do. Hope your day improves on the back half.