2.28.2016

Susan went in to NYC with her little sister and:

  • Became smitten with a well dressed sexy black god called Marco Glorious
  • Rode five stops on the subway
  • Ate in a Cuban restaurant no bigger than a hallway
  • Got drunk and hugged a wee Smart car
  • Saw Aladdin Sane on Mott & Kenmare
  • Briefly considered purchasing an overpriced vintage Marni bag
  • Sobered up in Little Italy 
  • Paid the parking attendant and went home


2.27.2016

Fact: Susan thinks coincidental things are always related but conspire to look arbitrary.

Fact: Cousin Lisa liked ginger candies.

For years whenever Susan ran across a bag of ginger candies she would purchase them for her Cousin Lisa. Susan considered them to be foul little suckers, but in recent years she's developed a taste for them. The ones she prefers are different from those she would purchase for Cousin Lisa, but that's really neither here nor there, ginger candies taste like ginger.

Cousin Lisa also liked candied ginger, which is actual ginger that has been dried and coated in sugar. Susan had a candied ginger connection in her neighborhood & would periodically bring a bag of it to her cousin. That stopped the day Cousin Lisa graciously accepted a new bag and placed it in her kitchen drawer alongside two previous bags.

Anyway, the anniversary of the day Susan lost her beloved Cousin Lisa arrived and steamrolled right over our tender heroine. She sobbed for hours the evening before and when she awoke it appeared as though she was punched in both eyes. She took a hot shower, donned a new dress in homage to her eternally stylish cousin and headed off to work.

When Susan arrived she found something on her desk.

The husband of her office-mate had purchased it for himself, discovered it was not to his liking* but thought it may appeal to Susan and sent it in as a hand-me-down gift;

A bag of ginger candies.


*Gross was his description

2.26.2016


who foresaw that I
would prove my strength by living
this year without you

I fill the absence
with a thousand reflections,
each a universe

red bird on a branch -
I remember that morning
and our happy chat

in similar moments
maybe I'll choose to see you
blowing me a kiss