rituals + incantations ii
Hailu Mergia & Dahlak Band — Anchin Kfu Ayinkash
"Are often misleading, transformed or elsewhere. In the morning"
Hello:
Switching the heavy clothes out for the lighter ones, a spell to bring the polar vortex. Hiss of the sodastream, hitch of release. Clapping lightly at the cat when his head's already all the way into the water glass, scratching his butt for exactly three and a half seconds until he flops all the way over onto his side. My Girl (karaoke version). Making the shopping list, crossing things off. Juicing the lemons and grating the rinds. Wondering if you should spend $100 on three bottles of natural wine. Deciding not to, then wondering again. Toronto Public Library: NYtimes access. Taking it, then texting yourself the time when you took it. ...Baby One More Time (karaoke version). The aux cord, the HDMI cable, the charger, the login, the code. Clapping for the Daily Double. Canning tips for beginners (14.:52). Pressing the garage door button, then running underneath it with your head tucked under as fast as you possibly can. Stepping off the sidewalk, looping around three parked cars. Trying to smize at each passing dog. Checking to make sure the pleats face down. Reading the sidewalk. Craning your neck to see what's in the window. Rug Hooking Tips for Beginners (52:50). Pushing the lever up, adjusting the dial. Pulling the feed down, watching the wheel spin. Plugging it in and unplugging it, plugging it in. Tapping the headphone and pausing to listen. Under the Bridge (karaoke version). Wondering if that's really what you look like. Adjusting your speech against the small pause. How are you, how are your feelings? Two voices dissolving together in the overlap, cancelling each other out. Refreshing. Calling down the stairs Hey what's the date again? Lacing up the garden shoes. Testing the soil with one finger. Misting the seedlings, one two three each. Pushing the fork deep into the ground, finding the roots, pulling up gently but also with confidence. Trying to only disturb the things that need disturbing.
Something longer to read:
A few weeks ago a friend of mine asked me if I could recommend a poem for her to record a reading of for someone she was seeing but not, you know, seeing right now and I spent the whole afternoon trying to pick out something that was the right blend of sexy and a little sad. This was the greatest project I have been commissioned to do in a while and if you ever need me to pick out a poem for you to read to anyone in any mood I will be more than happy to do it but anyway. I ended up picking an Eileen Myles poem and then I remembered this essay about waiting for something you want and I almost didn't want to reread it in case it wasn't as good as I remembered; sometimes it's better to hang on to the memory of the feeling than to try to revive it. But my will is weak and I did reread it and I'm glad because it made me feel almost the same way it made me feel the first time. It is hard to wait, and still you do it, and at the end sometimes you get an essay out of it, and then someone loves that essay so much the first time they read it that they never want to read it again. Not so bad.
Pets, interiors:
Visit @apartment_poem on instagram for more, or to submit your own.
Roommates:
(Submit petty gripes about the people you share space with anonymously to apartmentpoem@gmail.com)
My roommate (for the past two years) told me in earnest that the shower/tub is "self-cleaning", which I can only assume means she hasn't ever cleaned it?
My one roommate would listen to rupaul's drag race everyday since the beginning of social isolation so loud that I could hear every single word from my bedroom when they were in the kitchen downstairs. I would worry about their hearing (if it was doing okay) but also their brain, conversations with them were increasingly peppered with ill-fitting drag queen catchphrases and they started being rlly sassy to me all the time. As my other roommate and I (there is three of us) are casual/healthy fans of rupaul, we started responding to this by increasing our usage of rupaul catchphrases to an annoying, insufferable level. None of us were happy, stressed about being stuck inside together. We were *tongue-pop*-ing and "oh honey"-ing as a way to pretend we didn't want to be stuck together for that hellish week and a half.
I do love both of these weenies but i'm so tired of them. When my roommate finally finished all of the previous seasons of rupaul and UNHhhh the catchphrases ceased thank god. I might have made the situation come to a more aggressive and annoying head by playing Nails, Hair, Hips, Heels by Todrick Hall. Anyway, now we watch the new rupaul episodes each friday together and it feels healthier, the forced zany behaviour is contained to that evening and I think we are more comfortable knowing that we all kinda hate each other right now.It's become evident that my roommate and I are from wildly different class backgrounds. When I suggested that a weekend getaway to his family cottage might not be the most ethical decision right now given the circumstances, he said (and I quote): "you can't tell people not to go to a property that they own."
my roommate insists on using the sponge with the handle that you fill with soap. i believe these are a scam because you don’t need to constantly apply soap while doing dishes! they use up soap so fast. and she leaves it in the sink so the soap leaches out. they go through one handle full of soap per day basically which is a lot!!! my sister and i have decided to use a classic sponge to cut down on soap use. it is too petty to ever bring up but i silently resent this sponge.
Dreams:
(No dreams this week! If you have one, submit it anonymously to apartmentpoem@gmail.com. Doesn't have to be "interesting," all dreams are actually interesting, even the ones you think are not.)
Gentle reminder:
You don't have to go on twitter. It's not bad if you do, but you don't have to.
&&&:
Carlo's basketball corner:
Kevin Durant vs Blake Griffin IN HIGH SCHOOL