36 Hours San Diego

So I'll pick you up at the station, okay?
It'll say Santa Fe but it's Amtrak.

I want you to meet my love, and
Show you movies of girls' love and fears, and
let you play with the dogs in the dog park.

I've got a coupon for sushi!
(Sorry, it's kinda squishy)
And I'll show you the town, from the taqueria on down
To the mall.

There's a place not too far where the cliffs are striped sand and
Twisted trees grow from the salt.
Have you met my fruit man? My coffee stand? My masseuse?
We'll return slightly sunburned to my bichon frisee,
Who will scold us for leaving without her.

Then there's a party at home for a couple
Who's parting at summer's end, and who wanted to
Share their grilled tofu and honeydew
Before they do.

You can sleep in my little house - just the right size! -
Though the neighbor's baby's cries might wake you.

For your last day here's another feast -
A park filled with roses and plants you won't see back East
To savor before you fly.

So are you all set? Want a snack? Magazine?
Have you got all you need?

I sure do. And I'm not coming back with you.
I'm going back home, to my love and my art.

But friendship knows no distance, regardless of the coast.
So till the next trip reunites us, I'm the friend who loves you most.

(Worse has been printed in the New Yorker.)

Welcome back!

Well hello there! Where have you been? Did you think I was fading into blogger oblivion? It was merely my summer vacation, and I must say it was refreshing to take a break from my "public" voice. Although it's hard for me to judge if anyone still checks in here, I am conscious that I'm not just writing for myself, and that I should consider my readers present and readers future by sparing them from unpondered boredom.

So instead I've been trying to turn my writing into a private act. This is how it always has been after all, the original performance art. An act as private and inward-looking as meditation or an expression of love. I have plans for my public voice, however, namely catching up on posts I've been drafting in my head for months, and soon it will be time to start a wedding blog, speaking of boredom. And maybe later today, when no one is looking, I'll post here a poem-like fragment for a friend of mine.

And I realize I am getting back to blogging right around September 11, which I've made comments on year after year after year. Maybe it's time to turn that into a personal act as well, instead of public pageantry.