Hot Frog Nights

Too much time got cut out of this blog – if it were representative, it would show you Athens. Hot sticky frog nights and cicadas downtown, Clayton Street’s Christmas lit avenue; our Champs-Elysées. Thunderstorms that kidnapped our power in the middle of Shutter Island’s own monsoon, just so we could push open your screen door, stand on the porch next to the mildewing lazy boy and watch the real world splendor for us, tell us it still had miracles to give and wonders to show. It would tell you about Kelly of the Tucker and Ben, my Ben no longer mine, and how I love but am never in love, the literal swell and push and rawness (not the good kind) of my sex, and also the orgasm I dug for. About late nights hanging out of my loft and leaky ceilings, how me and Kelly used to hear the dancers out back of Toppers fight with their boyfriends and three o clock frat boys through our third story window, and when the air conditioner never worked, we didn’t sleep, but eeked, the night. Midnight showings and mid day shifts at Chico’s spent dressing the upper middle mothers, grandmothers, and trivia on Wednesdays. Doctor Who with Mark and Jessie. About graduating, about hot tea and my guru Brett, about podcasts, bikes, Vision Video, and housekeeping for the Hilton. About beer pong at Waddell, and the naked sprint. About Chad who left to find himself, and a bug-eyed cat named Oliver Macaroni Tucker. About sweet tea hangovers, and a million hours at Borders writing a manuscript I’ve only just figured out the point off.

But it’s not. And now I’m in Tampa, swinging in my hammock on my porch that backs into Lettuce Lake Park, burning incense towards midnight, and listening to 88.5 Radio Active; the late night soul jam. Bobby Rush, don’t you wish you had a girl like me. Eating baked apple oatmeal with too much syrup in it, and getting into being a grad student. Three years coming, you just watch, I may have an MFA. I’ve thrown out the TV, and tried to kick in the internet, but missed by a hair. I am weak. Hopefully I managed to bruise Hulu, but I won’t see her for a couple of days, so I’ll have to get back to you on that one.