"Were you Frida?"

A pretty young stranger at the next table pauses my exit with a question: "Were you Frida at the halloween party?" A city of 20 million plus and, clearly, not enough eyebrows. "No, but I get that a lot."

Was I Frida? Was I Frida on halloween? Was I Frida at a party? Prosthetic eyebrows? Plastic flowers? Failed Billie Holiday? Fitting disguise? Was I Frida at 16? Was I Frida yesterday? Halo of frizz? Mustache dust? Open chest? Was I Frida at 22? Bloody grin? Gritted teeth? Joyous rage? Radical rejectedness? Was I Frida? Pubic hair? Men's shirt? Cigarette? Was I Frida? Feckless heart? Reckless feet? Sharp bite? Slurred Speech? Was I Frida? Eyebrows met?

Every day, I thank 16-year-old me for her gumption and rebelliousness.

Manifesto for Psycho-Social Sedentariness

or How to Fail Bolaño 

Why read?
Why fuck?
Why travel?

Watch television.
Nurture an emphatic solitariness.
Quash your instinct for risk and adventure.

Cultivate a bouquet of dependencies. 
Turn your back to the shelves, filling up.
Insist on returning to the same bed every night.

Lose your appetite for touch.
Gather ye insecurities while ye may.
Accumulate an insurmountable inertia.

Forget words.
Unrehearse flirtation.
Become a homing pigeon.

Look Out, Kids! It's Kurt Vonnegut Madlibs!

We knew from all the [magazines] I'd read out loud in my squeaky [desk chair], often with [grammar], that beautiful [writers] had their [sentences] destroyed by passionate [sub-editors].

Paper Bound Solace

(Photo mine.)

 

book·worm/ˈbo͝okˌwərm/

Noun:

A person devoted to reading. The larva of a wood-boring beetle that feeds on the paper and glue in books. A person devoted to reading who begins, in both physical and virtual worlds, to resemble a wood-boring beetle that feeds on the paper and glue, margins and type, quote and blurb, jacket and spine, colour and smell, shape and size, heft and height of books.

Dark Room

Open. On. Put down, unstack, pour. Tong. Tong. Tong. Negative out. Unfold. Open. Place, close, adjust, slide, brace. Frame. Rotate. Rotate. Rotate back. White off. Red on. Focus on. Up, down. Edge. Adjust. Focus. Back, forth. Grain check. Squint. See spots. Stop down. Time up. Stopwatch. Focus off. Paper out. Fold, slice, fold, slice. Paper in. Frame open. Paper in. Frame closed. Adjust.

Breathe. Dark. Breathe.

Expose. Count down. Frame open. Paper out. Frame closed. Drop. Developer. Stopwatch. Swivel. Swivel. Swivel. Wait. Watch clock. Sing Billie Holiday. Swivel. Tongs. Pick up. Shake off. Drop. Stop bath. Stopwatch. Swivel. Swivel. Swivel. Tongs. Pick up. Shake off. Drop. Fix. Stopwatch. Swivel. Swivel. Swivel. Wait. Watch clock. White on. (Red off.) Squint. Frown/Grin. Go out. Find Don. Feedback. Tinker. Reset. Watch clock. Tongs. Pick up. Shake off. Drop in. Water. Wiggle. White off. Red on. Set up.

Dark. Breathe. Dark.

And: again.

End: Water out. Hypoclear in. Stopwatch. Developer. Pour back. Stop bath. Pour back. Fix. Pour back. Rinse. Rinse. Rinse. Tong. Tong. Tong. Watch clock. Tong. Pick up. Water bath. Pick up. Water bath. Again. Again. Hypoclear out. Rinse. Tong. Watch clock. Squeegee. Drying mesh. Squeegee. Drying mesh. Again. Again. Stack. Pick up. Off. Close.