Archive for December, 2008

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

slouching towards bethlehem

somewhere, in a box that has gone through four or five moves unopened and unsorted, is a picture. a snapshot of a woman – a girl, really – in a Kodachrome red polyester mini-dress, hugely pregnant. her hair is black. her smile fills the photo. on the back it says, Christmas Eve, 1971. i was […]

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Sunday, December 21st, 2008

miles to go before i sleep

the shortest day of the year. morning crept up late but bright, everything reflected in the mirror ball of fresh snow. i was awake. i lay quiet, feeding one child and listening for the call of the other, wondering at the marvel of him sleeping ’til first light on this latest sunrise on the calendar, […]

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Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

boob tube

it’s snowing outside and our new furnace is roaring like a jet engine, making Posey and i most efficiently toasty if a wee bit deaf, and i am sitting here nursing her and staring at the tree lights and wondering absently whether the proximity to Christmas means my sudden urge to indulge in a large […]

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Sunday, December 14th, 2008

and the stars look very different today

When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years. – Mark Twain the longer i’m a mother, the better my own […]

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Tuesday, December 9th, 2008

the old saint nick

Originally uploaded by o&poecormier last year he called him “Yaya.” this year, the words trip from his mouth with more ease, and he notes the red hat and beard with an enthusiasm that takes me aback, makes me wary. “Santa!” he squealed in the grocery store last week, when we happened across a blow-up display […]

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Thursday, December 4th, 2008

deconstruction

i woke up this morning to a deafening crash and crunching sound. it was not, actually, the cry of my beloved country falling down around my ears, though times are mad up here and unprecedented parliamentary nuttiness is most definitely afoot.  the clamour was, rather, the house across the street being flattened – chewed up […]

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Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

the camel’s back

it feels like rage. like metaphorical acid reflux, lava-hot. it splashes up without warning, spatters out of me in mutters and expletives and tears, my face raw and shocked.  i am all powder, fuse worn down to a nub. i am fine, and insane, all in the span of thirty seconds.  and when i am […]

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