Themes
Close Enough
Not exactly schizophrenic in the classical sense, but close enough that people
give him all the room he needs on the sidewalk.
Clean House
everybody’s dancing in place because they don’t want to mess up the house since it just got cleaned
Chocolate Scare
You think he’s scary now? she said. Just wait till he finishes off all the chocolate.
Chocolate Voyage
Every afternoon my grandmother would have 2 chocolates with her coffee. I asked her once how many she thought she had eaten in her life. If you laid them all end to end to the moon & back, she said, I’d be sitting right here even as we speak & then we celebrated her return with an extra chocolate.
Choice Baggage
doesn’t mind carrying a few choice pieces of baggage so she has a conversation starter
in almost any social situation
Christmas Dragon
What’s that supposed to be? I said. That’s a Christmas dragon, he said. If Santa rode around with this instead of all those reindeer I think it’d put real teeth in the naughty-or-nice thing.
Circle Game
The children sat in a circle around him & he said, I don’t believe in life anymore & no one said anything for a while because he was older than they were & maybe knew something they didn’t, but then someone said, let’s play a game & someone said, Spy & someone else said, Chase & soon there was no one there but the man sitting alone
City Windows
My grandmother told me once that a city has enough windows for everybody. I still want to believe her.
Class Act
taking himself for a walk hoping he doesn’t poop on someone’s lawn
like all the other dogs in the neighborhood since he’s trying hard to better himself
Classic Chic
falling back on the classics because it’s easier than admitting all this modern stuff is a little bit baffling
Classic Piece
The elephant head was the most unusual piece in her wardrobe & even though she never wore it in public, it gave her great comfort to know she could if she wanted to.
Chihuahua
I remember once I went to my great-grandmother’s house. It was a big white house & it always smelled like slightly burned toast & raspberry jam. She had a picture of Jesus on the wall in her living room. She told me his eyes would follow you around when you walked. I told a friend about it a while ago. He nodded & said he used to have a Chihuahua that did the same thing.
Child Proof
We forgot to child proof our life, she said to me & I knew exactly what she meant. It had been a long day.
Chill Wind
Wrapped tightly against a chill wind she just remembered from a long time ago
& no amount of current time & temperature can help this one
Chinatown
possessed of an acute sense of smell & a curious nature
so no matter what city she goes to she always ends up in Chinatown
Chiropractor
I used to have eyes in the back of my head, she said, but I kept throwing my back out
& my chiropractor made me stop.
Chocolate Drain
Two can live as cheaply as one if one of us didn’t like chocolate so much.
Checkbook
I’ve got a lot more going on in there than you’d guess if you looked at my checkbook, she said.
Caregiver
What happened to you? I said & she said she was nurturing the cat against its will
& that was the end of that conversation.
Careless Future
The future is a funny thing, she told me one day,
because we’re the only ones who care about it.