Friday 14 August 2009

Everything Is Going To Be Alright

I have two weeks left to finish the work for my Master’s. My world is my laptop, my lovers the keys. I drink Earl Grey and I eat cheese slices and I write and smoke and write and smoke and sometimes I weep quietly underneath the desk. I have to work in the spare room because there are things in my bedroom just waiting to distract me, gurning clowns and hula girls, mermaids, squid and juggling dogs, Ophelia drowning and Wee Jimmy Krankie.

My hair is out of control again, coiling itself into dense ropes while I sleep, trying to pull itself over my eyes. It’s escaping, long strands sliding off the pillow and sidewinding along the floor, crawling up the table legs like thin red ivy. Soon we will all be swaddled and the house will be still.

Keep Calm and Carry On.

15 comments:

  1. Ohhhhh, swaddled! That sounds so nice. Like rebirthing.

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  2. Oh oh, your writing is pure joy, I swear.

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  3. jesus, you gave me a flashback to when i was finishing my master's! don't worry - no matter what they say, sanity does return, it is a replenishable resource.

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  4. "gurning clowns"? I looked up gurning...closest thing I could find is gurney. I don't know what it means, but I love the way it sounds.

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  5. Paul's right - pure joy. And now I'm off for an Earl Grey and a cheese slice myself :)

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  6. @hereinfranklin, gurning is where someone pulls a unusual looking face, works better when the person has no teeth in apparently.

    http://cache.deadspin.com/assets/images/deadspin/2008/06/gurning.jpg

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  7. I haven't thought about Wee Jimmy Krankie in a while.

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  8. Ellie - I know! I'd love to be wrapped up in swaddling bands, although I think after a while, claustrophobia might get the better of me and I would start thrashing about like a cat in a pillow case.

    Paul - right back atcha, mate x

    Jason - thank you, thank you! I've actually started dreaming in text, so it's nice to be reassured that there is a light at the end of the tunnel that's not the 3.26 to Bradford.

    Hereinfranklin - Gurning's quite big in some enclaves of Britain. Not sure if that's a good thing or not.....

    I also use it to refer to the funny faces people pull when they're on e. My clowns are usually on e.

    Mik - Fan-dabi-dozy!

    Rassles - Before I went back to university I was working as a secretary. Now I get to spend all my time exercising my imagination, as opposed to pandering to the administrative needs of fat, rich accountants. It might be bullshit, it might be a self-perpetuating cycle of pretention, but it’s my bullshit and my pretention, it’s what I want to do with my life and it’s a damn sight better than my other options!

    Plus, nobody tells me off if I stop work at 4 to watch my stories.

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  9. Maxine - sorry I missed you out! Hope you enjoyed your cheesy tea.

    P.S. After reading your poem I keep getting distracted by thoughts of how various Shakespeare characters would interact. Is it wrong to spend so long daydreaming about the love-life of Ariel and Puck?

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  10. Keep calm and carry on. Yes. And then write some more for us here.

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  11. @hereinfranklin

    C'mon buddy, you don't got google in franklin?
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/3670504.stm

    It's a British national pastime.

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  12. Any chance of it swaddling the world whole like a great big yarn ball?

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  13. You are weird, and verbose and I love you. (it was mostly the cheese thing)

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  14. I have a nice image of you as a domesticated Pre-Raphaelite.

    I wonder what you are studying. Good luck!

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