miércoles, mayo 30, 2007

Querido corazón

Te escribo desde esta orilla para contarte algunas cosas. Cuando te fuiste, me dolió, nos dolió, porque no entendíamos por qué. ¿En qué consiste esa necesidad de tocarnos, llenarnos de tus bellas mentiras, tus cuentos, tu risa, tu fuerza? Y después... ya sanos, dejarnos a tambalear en nuestros pequeños barcos inútiles. Pregunto.

Tú me encontraste en un momento débil (como si no todos los momentos lo fueran) en el cual me habían abandonado. Lo digo en plural, aunque sea singular, porque se sintió como un éxodo masivo, un desalojamiento, un vacío. Tú me llegaste por una nada, una palabra, una correspondencia. Me desviaste el rumbo suicida. Digo. Metafóricamente. Me dijiste que no dejara de escribir, me tomaste la mano, de lejos, de un lugar desconocido, Oregon, Georgia, Río de la Plata, con las botas militares, el cigarro en la boca, y tanta tanta carga erótica que nos hiciste gemir a todas, o todos, nos diste aliento en la oscuridad. Nos diste... pues, nos diste a nosotras mismas. Sin ti, no habría Ale, sin Ale... me faltaría no sólo una gran escritora, sino también mi cómplice, mi hermana, mi amiga... la que no conozco en carne y hueso, pero que está muy presente.

Te extrañamos terriblemente, eso sí. Nos llenaste de mentiras y de lindas, lindas palabras, un guiño de ojo, un chiste, una pista. Tu corazón no era tan frío como nos harías creer, y aunque juré que te ibas a morir, no sabía que era una muerte metafísica... no entendía, sin embargo, te amé... Sí, te lo digo así, como amiga, como hermana, como compañera, amé tu mente, pura, oscura, llena de secretos, despistes, terrores, dolor. Solitario y universal, nos llegaste, como todos nos llegamos, de suerte, por casualidad... o será por causalidad.

A veces me pregunto, porque este mundo es tan vasto, y te buscamos, te busqué por cada rincón, cuando te fuiste. Volteé cada roca, en busca de lo que nunca había. Te extrañé, extrañé tu extrañeza, tu entrañable transparencia, u opacidad. Da igual. No eras tú, sino la voz que quería oír, que necesitaba oír, en la oscuridad, en mi oscuridad. Me estrechaste la mano cuando sentí que me caía al abismo, cuando el vacío era tal que no sabía por dónde comenzar. Por dónde acabar. Me había abandonado mi razón de ser, de nacer, desaparecida, al éter. No era tanto la necesidad de ser necesitada, porque pronto me di cuenta que no era tan así, era la necesidad de los ojos, los que sostuvieran la mirada, mi mirada, la de narciso, la de su eco, fuiste un eco, para mí, para muchos... y después, como si nada, te fuiste a sembrar otras cosechas... me imagino que sí.

Yo soy así, en el fondo, cuando la cosa se convierte en hábito, y el grupo impone sus expectativas cada vez más difíciles de aguantar. Huyo, huyo como gaviota, como mujer sin sombrero, sin abrigo, corro, vuelo, desaparezco entre las olas. Así te imaginé, entre las olas, cuando las mentiras, las bellas historias, derrumbaron bajo el peso de la cobardía... no la tuya, precisamente, ni la mía, ni la nuestra... la cobardía de ser... la cobardía de dejarnos conocer.

Me dijiste, una vez, que era la chica que sabía demasiado, que salí de una película de mafiosi... si los deseos se hicieran reales, eso sería, sin duda. Mas no lo soy, no sé nada, sólo supongo, y supongo mal. Muy poco importa, porque lo que cuenta para mí, y para ti, para nosotros los que andamos solitarios por el mar, por el mundo, por la noche infinita, es la historia en sí, cómo se cuenta, como se narra la esperanza hecha luz, y palabra, sudor, sangre, óleo, lienzo, pantalla. Es un mundo de espectáculo, un mundo cuyos preceptos desconocemos al entrar, que no nos prepara por nuestra propia perdición. Tú me enseñaste muchas cosas. Tú nunca supiste lo que significaste para mí. Nunca te lo conté porque parecía demasiado, porque había la vida entera para contarse, y porque resultaba ridículo sentirse como me sentí, en el verano, triste, sola, rodeada de miedo, y libros, soledad y espesor. Ese verano que sentí que me faltaba el aire, porque me lo quitaron, cuando creí que no había un sólo lector en el mundo que me completara el circuito... Estuviste tú. Estuviste y no, no exististe realmente, más allá de mi imaginación, de nuestra imaginación colectiva. Como el borracho del vecindario, y la ex-novia que te encontró en un café. Eran fantasías que jamás pudiera yo haber imaginado que necesitara, sin embargo, me salvaron, en el vasto desierto, al borde del cual me paro otra vez, pero que ya no se siente tan vasto, ni tan desierto, porque rescataste algo, lo que otro había encaminado, tú lo regaste en su ausencia, lo cuidaste, me volviste a dar el aliento.

Te lo escribo hoy, porque hoy pensé en ti... hace mucho que no, mucho que te me has borrado, poco a poco. Mucho que te extrañamos, pero que por orgullo, no se te reclamó nunca. Hoy se me ocurrió buscarte otra vez, como otras muchas veces, antes, hace un año... seis meses. Del olvido... no me quiero acordar, pero aun así, recuerdo, y hoy, te cuento, hoy que te busqué, hoy que sentí que volvía a mirarme en el espejismo del abandono, del vacío arenoso del silencio, de la huida de los ojos, mis ojos, los que han aprendido a quererme, o los que me han rechazado una vez más, hoy, frente a la ausencia de esos ojos, te busqué... y allí estabas... palpitante... de palo, tal vez, de hojalata y de cal, qué cosa fuera, corazón, qué cosa fuera... que volvieras a la vida, carne y madera.

lunes, mayo 28, 2007

The honesty room

your heart


The Honesty Room

cracked, in earth, in spirit broken
a door, a key, the word unspoken
crumbling reason, no release
charred and dirty, stolen, cease
a void, a voice, a mother tongue
the empty hollow, no more young
rusted, aching, sealing shut
a mark, a stain, a constant rut
soul foreclosure, stark white lie
no desire, a whispered sigh
the way is hard, a constant ache
impostor, treason, lie awake
to face the dark, in anger, fear
razed in terror, quivering tear,
still there, a future, still, a seed
waking beauty and desperate need
silence, twisted, a blinding white
imagine, live, resist, take flight.

domingo, mayo 27, 2007

What to do when your cat has needs...

Thursday was the first night in the last month that I slept through the entire night.

I had a series of hypotheses regarding the reasons for my sudden insomnia, some relating to medications, others to stress, others to, well, lack of certain satisfactions that shall remain nameless, not for shame but rather for the heightened pleasure afforded by ellipsis.

Those come crumbling to a fine powder here in my midnight hands. I know now why I am not sleeping.

Last night we stayed up late, copas en mano, after all the conference guests (save for us, the diehard few) had left. Movies shown, panels performed. I. had insisted on spending the night there, and slept on the small sofa that would be pulled out and made into a bed on the living room floor. At 2:30, just about this hour now, we finally retired, S. to her bedroom, C. to her house two blocks away. I slept well, but certainly not enough.

I. has been waking in the middle of the night. She surreptitiously slips into bed with me, every night. I am programmed, like the hotel California, to receive. Tomight there are two little girls in my large bed, her little friend slept over, and now, as I write, came hesitantly into the frame of the door, claiming fright, but seeking warmth. None of these are the reasons for my, dormus interuptis...

I discovered tonight it is my pretty little puss... the thing that is waking me every night, climbing up with her little paws on my chest, thrusting her pointy little nose into my face, my neck, my ear... and then sucking with abandon, until I toss her off. She comes back for more, once, twice, three times. I sit up and she crawls into my arms, climbs halfway up in ecstasy. God, I think, this cat is more demanding than even I! (Well, some might beg to differ, but they would be few and far between - away?)

So, quite soon I will be divested of such feline urgencies, and in their lieu, suffering altitude sickness, and smog ingestion. My own needs being met? Ha. I have acquiesced to having my bed be in the living room, as my one and only goal for the summer (beyond copious amounts of work) is to NOT create any intrigue, nor entwine myself with relationships beyond the merely literary sort.

jueves, mayo 24, 2007

Strange indeed

So yesterday, at therapy, the better part of my session was spent examining the fact that I actually sincerely feel guilty (if not ashamed) when I am recognized and praised publicly for my work. This stems, in part from the fact that I have had a series of fortunate events, of late, mostly regarding competitive awards for academic research and teaching.

I get this sick feeling in my stomach when people signal me out. And at the same time, I go to all the effort of applying for, or submitting to said competitions, and in fact when I am in "quest mode" am quite single-minded in my pursuit.

Why am I never happy? (well it isn't exactly unhappiness, it is rather, immediate self-doubt)

So our session also elucidated a connection between this, and the fact that I feel like I have somehow been afforded more than my fair share in life, like I have had an extra helping slopped onto my cosmic plate, and I feel a deep sense of guilt for having such privilege.

"What privileges do you feel you have been given that are somehow unfair, or exceptional?" she asks me, pointedly, and I squirm.
"I don't know... well, one is that things have always seemed to come to me easily, while I see other people struggle. uh... I don't know... We weren't terribly wealthy growing up, and yet, I never wanted for anything. I was always supported by my parents. That has to be somehow unfair, doesn't it, when there are so many people that are mistreated by the people that are supposed to nurture them?" I keep looking for more privileges... "And, well," I pause, "I just feel like sometimes things are done differently for me, than for others, and I don't understand why I deserve special treatment... and yet, I accept is, as it is my norm." And then it occurs to me, that nagging thing, the one that I always carry around my neck, "And... I was born an American. Isn't that the most unfair advantage of all?"


I have quite a bit to chew on for our next session. I go home. I don't get everything I want after all, at least not the instant gratification that I had desperately hoped for, but I remind myself that not everything can go my way. At least not every time, just because I wish it so. So I survive another sleepless night, deciding to do administrative work from 3-6 am, to at least make use of my insomnia. I get up and snuggle with a warm-skinned seven-year-old, that wraps herself around my naked body. We make it to school, singing all the way down the path to her classroom, "but if you wanna live in NY city, honey you know I will..." and I take my kitty to the vet, because she has an abscess that seems to have chosen to explode between when I made the appointment (yesterday morning) and when I came home. And the veterinarian is a wonderfully sweet warm man, and we talk about Mexican film, and share mutual recommendations. He likes my movie star name, and my cat's movie star name, and then I tell him my kid's name and he glows. And before I leave we have exchanged emails, and I have promised to send him more bibliography on Mexican film, and then the strangest of all, he says, "wonderful, I look forward to hearing from you, and this one's on the house." He escorts me from the office which smells of simple green, carrying Martina in her box, happily now munching on "greenies" which are cat treats that she gets each time.

And I smile, because he says, "I know there is no reason for this, but I am proud of you!"
but I also reassure myself that this is not the normal course of events, and am left wondering, as usual. Why me?

sábado, mayo 19, 2007

Ritual ablutions

The hours of daylight stretch out before me. I find myself, suddenly, alone, with myself. The child, sleeps, or plays, or goes to school, and my work, it seems, is suspended. In a far-off land, a friend admires my optimism, and I reply that it is no such thing, but rather "un vacilar entre el abismo y la rabia". It sounded pretty, it may be true. It is, at least, an alternative to the nothing.

What to do with myself? Where to go, but inside? And I am tired, so tired, of drilling farther in, deeper, back, until there is nothing surprising left. So I leave it, and I look for an escape, from me, from the hours of sleeplessness, the dark hours that also extend, spinning, endlessly. Perhaps these hours are longer, because there is no company to mitigate the silence. Compounding. Darkness.

So I lose myself in my ablutions, nothing as religious as a Mikveh, but I wash, with water, away, away. The pounding droplets on my head drive these thoughts from me, carefully I examine every follicle, lather with vegetable oils and minerals, nothing so harsh as lye, not for my tender skin, under the fervent stream that pours over me. My eyes close, there are no thoughts left, for a few brief moments, but the sting on my sun-deprived parts. And I stand, motionless, until the water begins to cool, until the ecological ramifications of this pleasure-seekeing activity make themselves manifest, and I once again, look for sleep, for something to calm this ache, or to name it, to drive it from my bones.

There is nothing, but the water, the steel blade, scraping away the unwanted, unacceptable parts of me, the milky lotions to seal the burn within. To close each pore off from foreign penetration, disease, death. I pull the cold sheets up around me, my soft flesh, radiating heat that soon reflects back. One more day, one more night, one more day, one more night, out into the infinite black of the ocean, forever, one more, until there are no more, until I don't care anymore about what is not here.

miércoles, mayo 16, 2007

It's curtains for you...

We girls walk down the street, State street in the sun, glorious and proud, swishing in our appropriately pink dresses, hers, nylon, mine, silk. We are stopped, and praised, and stopped again, we two, glowing in our self-generated radiance. There are days that are beautiful, now, with just us, secret places of pleasure. She clings to my hand, tugs, and I twirl her, sparkling, this gorgeous daughter of mine, in circles, in the sun, like the flecks of marble dust that give texture to the Tamayo paintings that we just examined.

We discuss his early impressionist brush strokes, she reminds me that she knows all about Van Gogh. We point at vanishing points, and compositional techniques, how the lines draw the eye into a focus, leading, leading. I ask her questions, and she answers, hesitantly, at times, wanting to guess the right answer, the one that will make her mommy glow with pride. There is an image, in grey, of an open window. There is a revolver on the window sill. "What do you think will happen? What do the colors tell us?" I ask, "Algo malo va a pasar," she replies gravely. "How do you know?" she points to the pistol, searches for the word in Spanish, and I supply it, and she nods. "Who do you think will get hurt, the person inside the room? or outside the window?"
"Inside," this time, with no hesitation.
We stand in silence, this child and I, holding hands, in our gauzy dresses and high heels. We move on. In the later period, in his darker phases, expressionism intimating its abstractions, but not fully developed, there are dogs, baring their teeth, bright colors, strident yellows, and reds, thick blacks, sharp whites. "What do you think is going to happen here?" I ask again, and again she replies, "Algo malo va a pasar..."
But this time, she notes, the violences explodes outwards, it is aimed out, not in, it is the colors, she tells me, that tell her about the anger, the rage, the snapping fear of the snapping jaws. She likes the guitarist, that is also shaped as his own instrument, but wants to move through, so we go, with her tugging me behind, back out into the sun.
In the morning she showered me with presents, a hand-made cabaza to shake in musical ecstasy, a ceramic announcement of her love, a hand-sewn decoration. She concedes to look pretty, for me, poses for my lens, pauses by the Siqueiros, and remembers about Trotsky. We go to the symphony and she snuggles her little head against my breast, enjoys the Bernstein, isn't too keen on Stravinsky's Firebird, puts up a valiant effort for Ravel. "I know Ravel," she says, and I kiss the top of her head. She decides to take me for Italian food, after all.

And the week slams into me with all the force of my stolen time, the hike in the foothills seems years away, and I wade through work, ticking off chores from my list. Tickets, purchased, house, cleaned (albeit, dishes were tackled by my dear friend Kik, and orchids supplied by another), papers organized, house sublet, cat de-ticked. The insomnia doesn't come from stress, I think, but lack of purpose, or excess of myself, and the curtains were hung, last night, to put the finishing touches on the room that promises to be a pleasant respite from the world, if only it could, by one taller than myself, that makes me laugh into the wee hours. So what if the darkened room lets me sleep past 8, to awake in a panic. "You're not a bad mom," she soothes, "but I wish you didn't rush me!" And I tug her hand, racing, racing with her tagging along behind at a pace slower than my urgent clip, struggling with her sweater, and wishing that she could have her weekend mommy back, just for today.

miércoles, mayo 09, 2007

Fare thee well, Paradiso


Spit screen
Originally uploaded by lunita.

Our momentary last girl's weekend of the year, here at the hideout, escape hatch, snatch of heaven. It was a moment of respite for K. A place to heal and recover. Seeing her there did the same for me. I will miss it, and miss her (though she is not gone forever, just back to the East). Little one cried when we left, some things seem more real when we say goodbye, like this idyllic place.

(B. and I were reflecting on the drive up about how many twists of fate, how much upheaval the three of us have experienced in the last two years, it is actually quite mind-boggling, but I won't bloggle about it now).

Laundry list

There is this point in which words flee us, abandon us. They are unable to combat the piling on of tasks, tasks, tasks.

It is Wednesday, and I look about my wrecked house, there are half-unpacked suitcases from three trips ago. A hamper filled to the brim, overflowing really, with clothing. I have no panties to wear. The electricity was out last night. I tell myself that is the reason that I didn't manage (again) to go to the laundry 500 feet from my door. It could also be because someone stole my bike trailer, which no longer served as such but as my make-shift laundry cart, but that would be a mildly lame excuse.

I could make it another week, if it weren't for the underwear.

In the newly cleaned car, cleaned in the morning, at the ranch that we will never see again, in the patch of freshly mowed grass, four foot grass that I mowed with love, and a bit of obsessive zeal, sweating and pulling the cord once, twice, three times before the motor would restart each time it choked, I found the frozen berries, now unfrozen, but still fresh in their stained cooler. There was a bright purple patch on the floor where it leaked. I thank myself that it is my car, not a man's, no one to get angry for my carelessness, my forgetfulness, my destruction.
I smile at myself because I pay my own bills and I ask nothing from anyone. There is something quite pleasant in that freedom. Ask nothing, expect nothing, and you will be denied nothing. Seems like a good enough rule for now.

So the berries are now simmering on my stove, with a dollop of mezquite honey, and a splash of orange liqueur. I would have liked to use red wine instead, but there were no open bottles (they never last). They will cook into a syrup, these berries from the ranch, harvested last summer, maybe by my hands even. I would make blackberry wine if I had the patience, a libation to be poured in absence. And the day pours out ahead of me, there are things to be written, expectations to be met. I squirm under the weight of my responsibilities, but I lie here, back in bed, a few minutes more, looking for words to combat this... feeling. And then I find this, the poem that was called to my attention the other morning, over coffee, and grading, and inappropriate conversation (nalgador sobo?).

PIENSO, MI AMOR, EN TI TODAS LAS HORAS...
(Salvador Novo)

Pienso, mi amor, en ti todas las horas
del insomnio tenaz en que me abraso;
quiero tus ojos, busco tu regazo
y escucho tus palabras seductoras.

Digo tu nombre en sílabas sonoras,
oigo el marcial acento de tu paso,
te abro mi pecho -y el falaz abrazo
humedece en mis ojos las auroras.

Está mi lecho lánguido y sombrío
porque me faltas tú, sol de mi antojo,
ángel por cuyo beso desvarío.

Miro la vida con mortal enojo,
y todo esto me pasa, dueño mío,
porque hace una semana que no cojo.

miércoles, mayo 02, 2007

A moment of silence

It shouldn't be shocking, I guess, to see death and destruction up close. It shouldn't be so disturbing when millions (trillions) of dollars are spent, and governments debated over magnitudinous murder. But there is something so much more personal and horrifying about the nakedness of being an eye-witness. Seeing a body in pain, or in death. (I am not sure which, just yet).

There were multiple ambulances, small vehicles really, with flashing lights. I didn't recognize immediately if they were police, or fire... white, unmarked SUV's, three, shielding the accident from view. Traffic was backed up, but moving, and I inched forward, heading, as is customary, towards the highway. The late afternoon sun is blinding there, on cathedral oaks. The ominous and oddly angled black SUV showed no readable signs. Was that a dent? or a shadow? Why did it stop there. No broken glass. And then I saw it, the silver glint in the sun. a flat handlebar. I inched forward, not a bike, a scooter, flat lines, lifeless. Two women with emotionless faces squatted behind him, the sun framing them. There was no movement. Just stillness, one touched his hand set it back down, his face lay on the asphalt. There was no response. He looks so peaceful there on the ground, his lithe body, at rest. There was no blood on the pavement. His shaved head showed no signs of trauma. Maybe he is sleeping? Sometimes I think I would like to just lie there in the middle of what I am doing, too exhausted to carry on. There was a dreamlike quality to all this. Everything at a screeching halt, suspended. They were not ambulances? It was too soon. Where was his mother? I wanted to know, and I. wanted to know, too. "Don't cry, mommy, not while you are driving." She reached forward to comfort me. "Shhh. He's not dead," she tells me. "The good thing about my imaginary friends is that they tell me things, they can tell me the truth about things. They are telling me he is not dead, he is just unconscious. But, I wish his mommy were there."

And I envision the wail that would rip through me, tear my lungs apart. I don't cry anymore, can't always cry. Why was he on a scooter in the middle of the road? What was he doing there, in that precise moment at that exact angle? What sense does it make? How do you have tomorrow? And the next day? Why does it hurt so much to witness, to be impotent to reverse the damage, to console, to protect?

There is nothing to say, and yet, I need to testify.