ausgang

I've had this dress since I was three. It's one of those hangers-on, a thing I can't get rid of. But now that I'm moving so far away, I have to consider what I really need, and what is sentimental but unnecessary. So today it went into the giveaway bag, and hey. It's all right. (The picture above it, on the other hand, is a New Yorker cover from my birthday in 1982. It shows a girl with a present standing at a door. My dad and mom framed it and I've always had it hanging somewhere. It won't be leaving anytime soon.)

Outgoing. Outgoing. I've been thinking a lot about that lately. So much of me is headed off into the wide world and once it's there, that's that.

But no melancholy, now. It's raining, has been raining all day, and after so many days of heat this is just right. I sent off my package for the Vintage Button Swap that Sally is holding, and walked all over campus through the rain. I finally have stopped feeling like a college student--after having been one, or sort of one, for seven years. It's strange.

I want to talk about poetry.

I've been reading a lot lately. Finally paid my dues to the library and brought home many books--junk books, heavy books, fiction, non-fiction, poetry. And four cds of piano concertos, études, nocturnes. Feels a little like the beginning of a hibernation. Beginning of something new. Some ether, to steal from Nick Flynn.

It must be the rain that is doing this to me. I'm as disjointed as it is, just letting things fall where they may.

Also outgoing [exact measurements on request]:

(A piece of Japanese brocade, about 18" x 24"; $8, postage in.)

Email me at ohbara [at] gmail [dot] com if you're interested in a departure with expected arrival at your house.

Now back to the rain, looking at it, etc.