Libby Weber's Blog, page 14

September 30: Mental Health Day

Dear Place of Work, Ms. Weber won’t be in

Today, tomorrow, possibly all week.

She suffers from a lack of keratin

Upon her toes, and maladies unique:

I diagnose presymptomatic states

Pertaining to her oddly sound psychosis:

Ideopathic syndrome, which dictates

A somewhat unpredictable prognosis.

And therefore, I prescribe a regimen

Of neuroactive exercises, such

As media that features certain men

Exemplifying attributes nonesuch.

I recommend the treatment start forthwith.

Respectfully, Sincerely, Dr. Smith

...

September 29: Cosmetic Changes

Some mornings, through lush breeze and sunlit air,

Demand to be seen through unpainted eyes,

Since wind feels freshest kissing skin that’s bare,

Suppressed by artifice and wan disguise.

What does the morning care if you’ve a spot

Or if the skin beneath your eyes is dark?

When such a day’s beginning to be wrought,

One must be open to receive the spark,

But when I try to greet the world barefaced

It looks away from my unvarnished flaws,

As if it seeks my substance to erase,

Implying that from sight I shou...

September 28: Outreach

I sang a concert with a hundred friends,

A new conductor and a brand-new season,

With music that collectively transcends

Chronology, geography, and reason.

Two times my eyes welled up, and twice they spilled,

From Purcell’s sorrow and from Bernstein’s joy

Love and philosophy were thus fulfilled,

In such a way that time cannot destroy.

But though all who have heard it will recall,

Its greatest enemy’s indifference

Of those who do not have the wherewithal

To actively combat their ignorance.

I only hope tha...

September 27: Headcanon

When reading Chekhov with an actor’s eye

And finding written: “Traraboomdeyay,”

I wondered what Chebutykin meant thereby,

And what, if anything, he wished to say.

And just what Ronald Hingley heard him sing

When he transcribed the singing from the Russian.

Was he deliberately altering

The onomatopoeia for discussion

To draw a parallel between the man

Who loved the sisters’ mother and a duke

Who only loved the chase and crooked plans

That Verdi sought to tacitly rebuke?

So when the doctor sings within the...

September 26: A Roll of the Dice

Four cups, five dice a-rattle, then upend

The cup and sneak a glance at what’s beneath,

And hope those private faces don’t portend

An easy-to-guess lying through one’s teeth.

For bidding on the pips you don’t possess

Is risky, but an awful lot of fun,

For when the bid is called, whether success

Or failure is achieved relies on one

To play the odds, for one’s long-standing friends

Make every gamble seem beyond the pale,

So utilizing some unusual ends

Means hoping that with fortune you’ll prevail.

The dwin...

September 25: Acquainted With the Sunrise

Encountering a snapshot of the past,

Can generate nostalgic introspection,

As one finds things that render one aghast

But also joy in those small imperfections,

Because it means that it was truly real.

As you grow chronologically apart,

From your work, objectivity anneals

Reproachful mind and then forgiving heart.

It’s sad that it’s so easy to believe

Your finest efforts are now far behind,

Despite the little wobbles you perceive,

You feel that from your greatness you’re confined.

Despite unpleasant musi...

September 24: She For He For She

A he for she means that the he’s for me,

With masculinity, a he can be

In favor of a she’s equality

And I’m for him who is a he for she,

A he for she seemes elementary

Since codifying feminimity,

Will limit every he as well as she.

In patriarchy violent cruelty

Can visit any she for being she,

But weakness is its own rigidity,

For when he stands with she unsilently,

It shatters tacit solidarity.

Henceforth a she for hes for she I’ll be,

In gratitude for spoken empathy.

Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson intro...

September 23: Testing

As one who rides the bus to work each day,

I’m quite familiar with that type of rider

Whose seat-bound bag is often in my way,

And whose splayed knees expand his quarter wider.

I’m hardly shy- I meet his eyes and smile.

He acts surprised to find I wish to sit,

Oblivious to the crowd packed in the aisle

Until I prompted him to notice it.

To walk like royalty, said Charlize Theron,

You gird your loins and rotate back the shoulders,

Extend your neck as graceful as a heron,

Envision MURDER- your face will s...

September 22: In Which I Am Self-Deprecating and Meta

When so much happens in a single day

That fourteen lines cannot contain it all,

I must cut ruthlessly joy and dismay

That seems on recollection more banal

Than simple pleasures, grumpy anecdotes,

From which my pithy aphorisms spring;

Fun to extemporaneously quote,

Thus needful, therefore to those words I cling.

But my desire to tell things as they are,

Then wars with my desire to elevate

The daily grind, and so I raise the bar,

And then repine ambition far too late,

And such pretension truly is a yawn,-i...

September 21: Day of Rest

Can one be said to truly be alone

When one is being laid upon by dogs

Until they bark at passers-by unknown

And neighbors out for their respective jogs?

No. Solitude’s the proper name for this,

Now liberated from all obligation,

Except for those I’ve chosen. I don’t miss

The trappings of external expectation,

But bliss and boredom cannot coexist,

And guilt that I relax while others work

Cannot be expeditiously dismissed

Without the niggling fear that I’m a jerk.

I justify indulging selfish wishes

By rolli...