The Magic Cafe Forums - Getting close to Emily.

Melissa, 'Honourable Daughter #2',

https://flic.kr/p/2orX3xn
https://flic.kr/p/2orX2AN

was packed like a butterfly, in a cacoon,...
in her cozy double bed.
Girl-freind Layla, bundled next to her,..
in the same somber state.

"We suspect Corona."
"We feel terrible."
"What should we do?"

"Hmm..,let's measure your temperatures.
I just happen to have a thermometer, with me(!).
....RECTAL."

My laugh was met with a groan,..
A groan that could crumble concrete(!..!).
Back-treading, towards the door,..
one short glimpse back,
(to blow a kiss?)
was my traitor.
I saw the book coming.

As incapablated, as she was(!);
(that word REALLY exists!)
she managed, to grab the mightiest of tomes(!),
hardcover....fresh corners,
...sitting on the bedside table.

Sandy Koufax would have "ahh-ed!"
Willy Mays would have 'wiffed'!
No 'change up'.
No 'slider'.
No 'knuckler' or 'spit-ball'.
Power pure.
"whishhhhh....BAM!"

Not a page fluttered...
....it caught my left cheek.
This girl's deadly, with a book, at 50 paces!

"Don't come back, 'till you've memorized the first half!"

That was my 'formal' introduction, with Emily D.

The 'Complete'(!) Emily Dickinson.
...all 770 pages. (!..!).

Emily Dickinson.
I mean, we've all messed around with:
'Hope is a thing with feathers...',
or,
'I'm nobody. Who are you?....',
or,
'My life had stood, a loaded gun.
In the corner,...waiting.'

[I'm actually the guy who gave 'Honourable Daughter #2'
'the weapon', in the first place(!).]

But,
paging through it,
on the 'get-away' U-bahn;
I was baff, at the feelings(?) Emily D., seemed to 'throw' around,....
about Street Performers(?..?!).

As though, she had peeked thru the window shades,
...on boring sunny days,..
catching glimpses, of Ramblin' Jugglers and Streetside Seranaders(!).

(from 1872)
'The Show is not the Show
But THEY that go,
Menagerie to me,
My neighbors they may be,
Fair Play,
I want to see!'

(from 1898)
'The saddest noise, the sweetest noise,
The maddest noise that grows,
The birds, they make in the spring,
at night's delicious close.

Between March and April line
That magical frontier
Beyond which summer hesitates,
Almost too heavenly near.

And too, men come and sing,
often much we deplore.
We almost wish those siren throats
Would go and sing no more.

We shout not,
an ear can break a human heart
As quickly as a spear,
We wish the ear had not a heart
So dangerously near.'

(from 1898)
'Fame is a bee.
It has a song
It has a sting
Ah, too, it has a wing.'

(from 1883 !..!!)
'Who has not found the Heaven, below, on the street
Will fail of it above,
For Angels rent the house next to ours,
Wherever we remove.

(from 186? )
'Fame is a fickle food
Upon a shifting plate
Whose table was once a
Guest but not
The second time is set.

Whose crumbs the crows inspect
And with ironic caw
Flap past it to the
Farmer's Corn,
Men eat of it and die.'

(from 1872)
'The words the happy say
Are paltry melody
But those the silent feel
Are beautiful.

(from 1864)
'His Grace is all he has,
And that, so least displays.
One Art to recognize, must be,
Another Art, to praise.'

STOP.

18 hundred and what?..!!?..!

We've reconciled,..
Melissa, Layla,......Emily, and myself.
They invited 'Chicky #1' and 'pops',
(ALWAYS,...'low case'.....)
for breakfast,....

https://flic.kr/p/2os2dfY
https://flic.kr/p/2orX2yJ

...i had to abspühl,
vacuum,..
AND,...clean the bath-tub(!),...
while they enjoyed pan-cakes(!).
But,.

Sometimes,...sometimes,..
'Hope is a thing with feathers,
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops, at all.'
Emily D.,..thanks.
gallagher