A Set That Couldn't Be Separated

I once had to cut a couch in two with an ax. I had purchased an ugly but serviceable beige couch at Goodwill (part of a three piece set that they wouldn't separate) with my friend Angela to furnish my new apartment. I had broken up with someone and left the furniture, thinking I'd start fresh. My bank account, however, did not have the energy to start over except with one new mattress and the other treasures we could find at Goodwill.

Angela is a master at getting things done, whereas I am a terrified Eeyore-type in light of common tasks like moving or putting things together. Angela says, Other people can do (fill in the blank) and so can we. My outlook is somewhat different, i.e., Everyone else knows more than we do and this is a clusterfuck loosely coming apart at the seams. This said, I am also a lucky person -- things have a way of working out for me. So I didn't find it surprising when we ended up at Goodwill on the truck unload day by accident. There was a small crowd there, waiting to lay claim to all the good stuff. Hence, I got the set that would not be separated.

In retrospect, the set was a disaster. It blended with the ugly renter carpet and was hellish to move. When I got rid of it, garbage collectors took the chair and ottoman, but not the couch. It sat by my Dumpster for weeks, and I watched my couch outside the window in all sorts of weather, in the rain and in the sun, my mistake big enough to see from my distant window.


Michelle's Spell of the Day

"We walk in circles, so limited by our own anxieties that we can no longer distinguish between true and false, between the gangster's whim and the purest ideal." Ingmar Bergman

Green Dragon

one glass of champagne
one part MIDORI liqueur
cherry garnish

Benedictions and Maledictions

First published in Spire Press:

Mustang Island

The rumor of horses persists
even though we never see
any. In the evenings, the girls
shave their legs in the Gulf
of Mexico, that comforting
warmth that makes every cut
sting. Sometimes the rain
comes down for days, but not
often enough to keep people
away from a beach that isn’t
exactly what you think it will be.