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Posts Tagged ‘party’

The Dream Rink

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on December 27, 2025| 4 Comments »


 
 
I didn’t know how much I needed
KC to invite me to her roller skating party
at Roll On America until today, when
she told me she wanted me to come.
The party was over four decades ago.
I didn’t know her then, and the rink
has long since been demolished,
but somehow my inner twelve year old
got the invite and jumped up and down
and ran circles around my inner rooms
pumping her arms in the air, shouting,
Yesssssss! All afternoon I felt her
bobbling on her faux suede tan roller skates,
chasing after KC who can tuck and skate
right between other people’s moving legs.
The Steve Miller Band has been singing
nonstop in my head about heating up and going
round and round, and I want to send invites
to every single kid who has ever felt excluded—
those kids still hurting somewhere inside
so many of us. There’s room for us all
at the dream rink. What a party we’re going to have.
 

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At the Graduation Party

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on May 22, 2022| 12 Comments »

for Lara Young, who pulls in all the wounded mamas with love, and for the other mamas, I am so grateful for you


At the edge of the happy throng,
we found each other,
five women who had lost a child.
Of course, we cried,
but damn, how we laughed
as we mobbed the photo booth
and dressed in bright wigs
and pink glasses and mustaches.
One woman was a blue crayon,
another wore a crown,
another held a bottle of red wine
as if to guzzle the whole bottle down.
And as the photographer lifted his lens,
the woman in the gold top hat howled,
When life fucks you up the ass,
and lifted a hand as if to say,
What do you do with that?
And we all knew what she meant.
What do you do with that except
weep when you weep
and laugh when you can
and love all the more
and slip the pink sequin gown over your arms
and smile for the camera
as one of the other moms squeezes your ass
and another one rests her head on your shoulder,
smile because that’s what a naked heart does
when surrounded with love,
smile because there is collateral beauty
you never could have dreamed of,
smile because the memory of these beloved children
is so alive here,
smile because. Because.

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You Are Invited

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on August 15, 2018| 2 Comments »

 

 

Today, a party, and the whole world

is invited. No written invitations,

but the occasion? It’s Wednesday.

And here we are, all of us, in the same place

at the same time. Might as well

get to know the person standing

next to you—learn their name,

shake their hand, discover

all you have in common—

the party goes on tomorrow, too.

Bring your own. Bring something

to share. No RSVP, just show up.

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