equidistant

and again. night
the little line of car-lights, in motion, equidistant
following
just so, to write thoughts on index cards pinned to the wall

Toni Morrison speaks at Smith graduation, my graduation
May 2001 – 10 years now
You’ve inherited a broken world.
Don’t try to save it.
Just don’t hurt it anymore.

I continue to believe her. That passivity is the charge of my generation. (Insert 10 years. The light leaving the wall, a steep slope of dry bush, a stop sign by the sound). To bear the world. To bear our inability to bear. (In Uganda, when you want someone to move down so someone else can sit, you say “extend”. Extend.) Somehow we will know from this differently.

Last year I drove through the streets (sat in the traffic) of Los Angeles listening to books on tape: Jazz, Love, Beloved, Sula, The Bluest Eye, The Mercy, Paradise – because I was curious: what is “just don’t hurt it anymore?”

instant coffee with milk, smoky
or I smell the ginger of your tea
while C drives to work in Valencia