I've been included in a Minnesota anthology "Under Purple Skies", now available on Amazon!

My second chapbook, "The Second Book of Pearl: The Cats" is now available as either a paper chapbook or as a downloadable item. See below for the Pay Pal link or click on its cover just to the right of the newest blog post to download to your Kindle, iPad, or Nook. Just $3.99 for inspired tales of gin, gambling addiction and inter-feline betrayal.

My first chapbook, I Was Raised to be A Lert is in its third printing and is available both via the PayPal link below and on smashwords! Order one? Download one? It's all for you, baby!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

If We Keep Our Eyes Closed….

I rode the bus to work Monday morning with my eyes shut. Well, with my eyes shut as long as I could, anyway. Call it research. Have you ever tried that, moving forward blindly? It’s difficult to do. You just never know what’s coming up, who’s staring at you, who’s waiting to trip you just to see you fall. I don’t recommend it.

It is now Tuesday, Election Day in the U.S. And in a way, today, we’ll all be riding the bus with our eyes closed…

Where are we going? Who’s driving? If I pull the cord, and keep pulling the cord, but no one stops the bus, should I keep my eyes shut? Should I warn the others?

By the time you read this, Willie and I will have voted with the other early-morning hopefuls in our usual neighborhood polling place: a very, very warm rent-assisted high-rise that smells regrettably of strong detergent, urine, and oatmeal.

As a quick aside, why? Why does it always smell of urine there? A question, surely, for minds greater than my own, but it does make you stop a bit, doesn’t it? The food smell is understandable, but why the urine? People sure aren’t using the hallways as toilets, are they?

Are they?

To paraphrase an old saying, You should never defecate where you slumber.

Which brings us back to the election and my research into moving, blindly. Yes, Minnesota gets dark in the winter, but the darkness is more than just the lack of light. For some, it is a refusal to acknowledge that it’s dark out; one cannot close one’s eyes and say, “But of course it’s dark! My eyes are shut!”

Let’s open our eyes.

By the end of this election day, we will know; and perhaps there will be a little more light.

Dark or light, however, I have plans to drink Tuesday evening, either in celebration or in despair.

Hey. It’s the Midwest. It’s what we do.

My best wishes, for the U.S.. For the world.

Please. Please.


On a completely different note, I was the guest writer on JLo's Zany Life + Crazy Faith blog today, in honor of Waiting For The Barbarians Day.

Seriously. You can't make this kind of stuff up. Go take a look!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Pearl,
For some reason my emails don't seem to be getting thru to you.
Please send today's piece for NO-HO to judimoran@gmail.com.
I will copy and paste into blogger and post asap.
Thanks so much.
PS. Let me know if OK to choose a pic from flickr to go with your post.
JLO

Unknown said...

I'm with you, Pearl. Whoever gets in, gets in. I still have to go to work tomorrow, I still have to remember to take something out of the freezer for dinner, I still have to do laundry, I still have a Dr's appt on Friday.

But I still remembered to vote.

Peace - Rene

♥ Braja said...

Oh dear.

♥ Braja said...

That Barbarians piece...was that a transcript from the documentary?

You should watch out on the 16th. I think you'll find that page vveeeerrrry interestin'

Unknown said...

I love what you said - cuz I know what you meant

I've ridden that bus too