From a free write last week. The topic was about what are the objects that define you, inspire you, constrain you.
never underestimate the power of clothes. buttons and shoestrings are the things that hold me together. my tattoos tell them everything about me that they need to know. I am nothing like they say I am. I don’t fit in, I just pretend. my eyes sometimes tell little lies. I am sun freckles and sunglasses. I am a glass of lemonade. I am shade. I am scared. I turn from being a man into an employee, 5 days a week, from 7 to 3. someone loves me, despite me. I can’t sing, I think music. I can’t see like they see, I see photographically. I draw literally what I see. I paint with light. first lines and then shadows, I let them fill in what they see. I feel like my car defines me. certified and pre owned. I wish I were a 59 cadillac, flat black with white, white walls. I want them to remember me. I am you. I want the same things you do. I want our grave marker to say, “SHARE.” I want to be buried with buttons, with shoestring bows holding our casket closed, never underestimate the power of clothes.
