What if life is just some hard equation in a classroom full of ghosts?
What if life is just some hard equation in a classroom full of ghosts?
chalk powder
that explains Casper
on the board a formula
as long as a life
and as funny as it may seem
written off to the right
aren’t we all seeking
somewhere
we all aren’t
distant bell tower
fracturing memory
a silver man holding
a cucumber sandwich
mouthing words to
an instrumental tune in a booth
for an afternoon or for someone
The title of this poem is paraphrased from Inside the Golden Days of Missing You by Silver Jews: “What if life is just some hard equation / On a chalkboard in a science class for ghosts?”
Last weekend my family and I went up to Victoria, Canada for a vacation. While there I was struck by the exaggerated order of English custom and design. Like the photo for this post, order (groomed, perfect gardens in this case) really accentuates moments of disorder when they occur. While sometimes feeling too perfect, it has a lovely way of putting a frame around a moment. To get the true Victoria experience we tried some “high tea” which is where the image of the silver man came from. He sat to the side of us and was a pixar version of an elderly man.
Something about this line from the song and the images from my trip had me thinking about communication between past and present and the strangeness of life. I’ve heard somewhere that a life is the summation of what you’ve given attention to… what an equation that would be.
With gratitude,