On Not Flying to Hawaii

I could be the waitress
in the airport restaurant
full of tired cigarette smoke and unseeing tourists.
I could turn into the never-noticed landscape
hanging identically in all the booths
or the customer behind the Chronicle
who has been giving advice
about stock portfolios for forty years. I could be his mortal weariness,
his discarded sports section, his smoldering ashtray.

I could be the 70-year-old woman who has never seen Hawaii,
touching her red lipstick and sprayed hair.
I could enter the linen dress
that poofs around her body like a bridesmaid,
or become her gay son
sitting opposite her, stirring another sugar
into his coffee for lack of something true to say.
I could be the reincarnated soul of the composer
of the Muzak that plays relentlessly overhead,
or the factory worker who wove this fake Oriental carpet,
or the hushed shoes of the busboy.

But I don't want to be the life of anything in this pitstop.
I want to go to Hawaii, the wet, hot
impossible place in my heart that knows just what it desires.
I want money, I want candy.
I want sweet ukelele music and birds who drop from the sky.
I want to be the volcano who lavishes
her boiling rock soup love on everyone,
and I want to be the lover
of volcanos, who loves best what burns her as it flows.

Alison Luterman

19.10.09

Wish Bracelets


The June before last I came across these wish bracelets in New Orleans. I have two that have become knotted together over time, purple and green. Each color signifies a wish that I hope will come true.

You can buy them at the tourist/vodoo shops in the French Quarter. For only a dollar, them come in a variety of colors. "Legend" goes that you are supposed to tie the bracelets on your wrist with three knots. As each knot is tied, you repeat a wish to yourself. Then you are supposed to wear the bracelet until it falls off. When it falls off, your wish comes true.

I don't think about the bracelets that much anymore; they've become a part of me. It wasn't until this summer that it finally occured to me how long they have on! When I first got them on I did a little research to find out exactly where they originated from and found out that they can last for over a year( http://travelvice.com/archive/2007/02/salvador-bonfim-wish-ribbons.php). Damn right they can!

I know that some people have aversions to making wishes, but how can you not believe in a wish? If there wasn't something we could all hope for in our lives, what would we have left? Lately I've been noticing my wish bracelets more. I've been focusing on exactly what it was that I wished for when I first tied them on. I think that's their purpose, to remind you what you want out of life. I have a deep feeling that they are going to be falling off soon. I can only hope that they bring my wishes to me.

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