Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Open Wide The Doors of the Tent

You might not think so off the top of your head, but you can handily host 25 people in the 800 square feet of space that you also live in if you are willing to do some rearranging. Which I was because a) what's more fun than rearranging? and b) it was for one of the nicest couples I know about to have one of the nicest babies. At least we all hope so.

I think of my little house like a ship - multiple compartments that can be arranged for the best use of the day. (Yeah, that doesn't jive with my post title. But I like both analogies so I'm keeping them!) This particular day needed an extra room for the 10 more people than I've ever had over at one time.

I envisioned a salon, a speakeasy. And I wrought this vision on my office. 

This window seat was finally used for seating, not an important-paper-stacking-system. 

                                               A desk turned sideways is a self-serve bloody mary/mimosa station.


                                                                Frankly, I never want this room to be an office again. 

People flowed easily between the front room, kitchen and office, migrating as their hunger or thirst led them. The three separate rooms made it feel you were entering a new party each time you moved to a different area. Sometimes you'd find one of the rooms with just a few people and sit down to a quieter conversation. Then a few more people would trickle in and suddenly the whole party seemed jovially crammed into one space. Which would start the process of trickling out and settling into other airier corners. I was reminded of the clouds of migrating swallows. Am I not flush with analogies today?

Regardless of what everything was "like", all together it was fun.

Friday, January 03, 2014

Turn Up That Radio!

(a holiday denouement)

Homeward turning now
  current signals scattering
  reforming to remembered
rhythms, structures to always
  keep, hold, repeat, ad infinitum

The dial seeks the station
  always there on a dark highway
  one thinks, hardly thinks
to just hone in is all - crumbling
 husks of time, distance, difference

A red needle wavers, searches one
  notch over, one notch back, somewhere
  between the notches
a change is in these voices telling
  stories not ours together

Intersections, supported themes, assumptions
  disintegrate to static shuffles
  unclear murmurs, moody fragments,
puzzling the listener expecting ease
  who, what, where, ungainly reacquainting

Straining hard for tones expected
  an infantile rage embarrasses
  angered at the ragged sounds
through wires and air contorting
  familial language never thought to fade