University of Chicago, undergraduate class of 2009.
Spending a couple days in Nassau, will talk about how awesome the school is when I get back.
written for AP Lit. we needed to write a poem about a painting. Mine was inspired by "the Adoration of the Rose" by Danny Malboeuf.
I
She holds a nuclear war in the palm of her hand.
This is no metaphor; she could destroy us with a fingernail.
She has destroyed me with less.
She hides her roses well, thorn side up and tucked
between a cold couch and a creamy thigh.
But I always know, I always see.
I am painfully, painfully aware
of the cold, hard fact of warmth.
And so I’m always waiting.
II
I hold her destruction underneath my tongue,
and I am looking just above
her pleading eyes, and her flawed curls.
And I will never, ever let her know.
My hands are bleeding
red like blossoms, and in the background
I am jealous of the moon,
captivating in her apathy.
I aim to compete with her in coldness.
III
My lips are marked by the blue of her kissing.
And my cheeks are flushed; I’ve been gazing too long.
This adoration breaks laws,
breaks bones, and draws lines like lightning.
IV
My legs are crossed, and I am guarded.
She, awkward bent, adoring,
shattered borders, like icicles, once
tasted roses, but never will again.
V
In a grey landscape,
her beauty destroys the world.
I can hold this pose forever.
VI
I love and obliterate her, always.
And my empty arms do not
contain all that I offer.
this will be the second-to-last college choice-related post, I think. Anyway, for those of you wondering:
so this week and next are focused very much around the play, despite my mere two minute of stage time (whatever). A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum. SWRHS. next Thurs-Sat, 8 pm. It'll be amusing. Sal in a dress, and Arielle in a hideous blonde wig.
in Lit we've started reading Lysistrata, and it's fucking amazing. Read this if you get a chance. The sex jokes of Ancient Greece. Good times. Read the Alan Sommerstein translation, it's great.
It turns the semi-tame/unrealistic translation:
Myrrhine: Why, you have no blanket!
Cinesias: My god, what difference does that make? What I want is to make love!
into this:
Myrrhine: But look now, you haven't got a blanket!
Cinesias: By Zeus, I don't need one! All I need is a fuck!!
Yeah. Rock. Also, my house smells like popcorn.
Bard - accepted
Brown - rejected
Cooper Union - rejected
Geneseo - accepted
New Paltz - accepted
NYU - accepted
Purchase - accepted
Sarah Lawrence - waitlisted
Smith - waitlisted
Tulane - accepted*
UChicago - accepted*
Vanderbilt - accepted*
*offering significant financial aid.
There are some kids sitting in the back of the bus, playing truth or dare. This marks the first time in a long time, possibly ever, that I've heard a teenage girl speak the word "panties" in casual conversation. ("Who says that?") But I feel pretty safe assuming this isn't, to her, casual conversation. You use words like that to get attention. ("I'm wearing a black bra." "I'm wearing a white one!") (I was wearing black. Am wearing. I had to stop and think, resist the urge to check.)
Yeah, you use words like "panties" to get attention, because you don't know how else to. I mean, that isn't true; you talk too loud in movie theaters. You talk too loud at rock shows about how much "I love this song!", only to remember in an hour that the Cars didn't even do that song, like you said (too loudly) that they did. It was Devo. You even have the album. On vinyl.
So there are other ways to get attention, but, like this one, you feel stupid afterwards. I try not to question my motives too much, which is to say I do it all the time. I try not to mix up my pronouns, but that's just a lie. But you knew that, right? I mean, it's pretty obvious. Whatever.
Recently, some numbers changed. Four to five, and nothingness went up to one, and then two. It was quite lovely.
I finished reading the Sandman comics last night. I miss them already.
p.s.: it's between NYU, Vanderbilt, and the University of Chicago. I have until the end of the month to decide. Advice is welcome.