Our Only Kiss Was Like An Accident-

She No Longer Believed In Talk. It Never Rescued Anything.

Depending On Where I Am In The Process, Sometimes I Have A Page Count And Sometimes I Don't. Sometimes I Have An Hour Count; Sometimes I'm Just Happy To String A Few Words Together. I Do Keep Pretty Rigorous Hours, Because Otherwise You Never Get Anything Done.

Hold Still," My Father Would Say, While I Held The Ship In The Bottle And He Burned Away The Strings He'd Raised The Mast With And Set The Clipper Ship Free On Its Blue Putty Sea. And I Would Wait For Him, Recognizing The Tension Of That Moment When The World In The Bottle Depended, Solely, On Me.

There Was Our Father, The Heart We Knew Held All Of Us. Held Us Heavily And Desperately, The Doors Of His Heart Opening And Closing With The Rapidity Of Stops On An Instrument, The Quiet Felt Closures, The Ghostly Fingering, Practice And Practice And Then, Incredibly, Sound And Melody And Warmth.

He Tunneled Into Stories Where Weak Men Changed Into Strong Half-animals Or Used Eye Beams Or Magic Hammers To Power Through Steel Or Climb Up The Sides Of Skyscrapers. He Was The Hulk When Angry And Spidey The Rest Of The Time. When He Felt His Heart Hurt He Turned Into Something Stronger Than A Little Boy, And He Grew Up This Way. A Heart That Flashed From Heart To Stone, Heart To Stone. As I Watched I Thought Of What Grandma Lynn Liked To Say When Lindsey And I Rolled Our Eyes Or Grimaced Behind Her Back. "watch Out What Faces You Make. You'll Freeze That Way.