The Haunted House

When I was trading baseball cards, playing with Legos and preparing for the zombie Apocalypse in pillow forts as a young boy, I always wondered if girls were doing something similar, or at least had that weird sense of imagination and hobbies that only your best friend shared. After reading Marisa Crawford's The Haunted House I think I have my answer. The girls in this collection of poems play tag on the telephone ("Ivy, The Name of This poem is Secret), trace their names into the living room carpet ("Perfect Blue Orbs) and listen to '80s songs on repeat.  

Some of these poems leave the reader haunted. The narrator keeps "a picture of the forest burning in my locket" ("Artifacts"). Or haunted and almost tongue tied: "Sometime's peoples fathers shoot rabbits and eat them when they are hungry and sometimes a child that is a child as she is a child is hungry but cannot eat and instead will cry, will dribble tears for days and weeks until their bones show." 

My favorite line, prejudice be darned: "Baseball diamonds rocked themselves to sleep at night." ("Indian Summer"). I enjoyed the feelings of nostalgia, that childhood imagination, that is so necessary and those friendships, those best friendships that get us through our childhood. It may sound cheezy, but I want my imaginary daughter to grow up like the girls in this collection of poems. I want her to have best friends (and lose them, because everyone needs to experience a best friend moving away) and have a wild imagination. I want her to have weird obsessions (90210, gull) but also love Emily Dickinson. (There is a photo of Emily Dickinson that looks hauntingly like me when I was about 10.)  

On Deck: The Poetry Chains of Dominic Luxford

In the Hole: The Museum of Clear Ideas by Donald Hall 

Random Thoughts: 

~Breaking Bad is possibly the best drama on television.  

~Berries plants growing in my neighbor's backyard (I may steal them, but I don't if they'll be tart or poisonous) 

~My strawberries aren't growing. 

~American Water by the Silver Jews is a great listen

Beer; Mix and Mix 6 packs at Mariano's:  

Summer Reading: