Skip to main content

Peter's Song, 1/1/2018

By Jess
After he'd been singing for a while in the car on the way home from Michigan, I grabbed some scrap paper and did my best to write down what I could hear from the front seat.

"...Everything that would be on a plane
it has four propellers
80 hundred until 1900 hundred
and he died in the early 94s
Those tanks except they shoot guns right out of their guns
There was a war and they changed to real weapons, real gunpowder
And in the early 94s those that were different
my bones fat... a gravestone of Kentucky
...and I saw what a gravestone looked like and I liked it.
And in the early 94s an early broken neck
Covered with a new... the wheels go around and round, round and round,
I can show you the tractor... it was a really good tractor, like the one in my hand
...
Went to the hospital and then I got better
and the war began again and I got my uniform

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Masterful Manipulations: Short Story Homeschool Co-op Class

By Jess
I taught a class on iconic short stories this spring at our homeschool co-op. I don't know how many of my former English teachers may have passed since, but any that have are rolling in their graves at this news. I find teaching especially stressful but this class exceeded my expectations in basically every way and that might have made it worthwhile. We read 20 short stories, which I was free to choose primarily on the basis of how much I liked them. I organized them based on loose associations. Table of Contents (We never officially read this, but it was so short, I included it in case I needed to read it aloud during that first class.) One Summer Night , by Ambrose Bierce Short Story Elements To Build a Fire , by Jack London Irony The Necklace , by Guy de Maupassant The Gift of the Magi , by O. Henry The Ransom of Red Chief , by O. Henry Irony - American The Veldt , by Ray Bradbury The Lottery , by Shirley Jackson Setting - Irony - Foreign The Sniper , by Liam O'Flah...
Post a Comment
Read more

Another month passes me by

By Jess
To quickly recap: We enjoyed a late-October weekend in St. Louis, accidentally arriving during the 8th inning of the Cardinals' World Series Winning Game. At the Ballpark Hilton. One block from the stadium. It was a night -- and very early morning -- to remember. We visited the zoo, Union Station, the Arch, the Botanical Gardens (to see the Chihuly exhibit), and I don't remember where else. Great city, good times. The furnace installation was completed on November 4th, and we've been toasty warm ever since. On November 15th, I hosted (with the immense help of three friends) 20 at the Ladies' Gourmet dinner. "Cranberries" were the theme ingredient. Everything was delicious. I was exhausted. The afternoon before leaving for St. Louis, I taped three half-hour shows for the Health Department, which I then had to scramble to assemble and deliver by November 17th. Of course, nothing ever goes smoothly over at the studio, so it took three times as long as planned ...
Post a Comment
Read more

You know it's been a long, cold winter when...

By Jess
... you dress your toddler in a short-sleeve shirt (with the intention of layering a sweatshirt over it) and he tugs persistently at the above-the-elbow sleeves as though the sleeves were simply rolled up. We explained that it was just a short-sleeve shirt, but Alex was distressed and asked for long sleeves. Paul had to take his flannel shirt off to show that he was wearing short-sleeves, too, and that Alex was going to wear another shirt on top, just like Dada. Alex had a serious case of The Daddies today, insisting that Paul come to the store with us and generally not wanting to be out of his sight for a moment. Originally, Alex asked for Paul to read him stories, but I hear footsteps on the stairs that would indicate he's changed his mind.
Post a Comment
Read more