Friday, May 18, 2007

"waving at you," from nothing for juice

so a guy walks into a store and says, i will buy the one i love a gift on this, her birthday. only the girl's not in his life anymore; moreover, they're going through a sloppy divorce (only darnielle could start a song with the line "listen, you can tell your lawyer he can go to hell" and still keep it a lullaby). bad joke. non-joke?

the question is: are emotions habitual?

i guess my answer is yes, a year and change after likely driving someone to disappear from my life, who i actually sent a birthday gift to last year, but plan to--i keep planning, i swear, we're finally in developmental stages--to let the habit die hard, die kicking. darnielle beats it out of his guitar facing the shop window forgetting that passerby can see him in the reflection. lawyer line aside--and it's such an obvious bid at security anyhow; the going to hell tell-off--"waving at you" is probably the most irrefutably tender song he's ever written.

happy birthday to you, c.b., in nigeria or seoul or utah or washington, i'm not sure, you only stay mappable in my mind.

2 comments:

ziemssen said...

Have you read the last two of Borges' 'Nine Dantesque Essays'? I'm not precisely sure why (there are obvious reasons), but I get the sense that you would appreciate them, if you haven't already. This could be said to anyone.

mp said...

don't think i've read those, actually, though i have read a lot of borges over time so maybe i'm just forgetting (i have a terrible memory). thanks for the point.