Author: Sue Young

Double Quote Of The Week

I love Nora Ephron. Sadly, she is no longer with us but her spirit lives on and I’m re-reading some of her stuff. I couldn’t decide between these two quotes, so I thought, I’ll do both.

‘Many years ago, when I was in analysis, my therapist used to say, “Love is homesickness.” What she meant was that you tend to fall in love with someone who reminds you of one of your parents. This, of course, is one of those things that analysts always say even though it really isn’t true. Just about anyone on the planet is capable of reminding you of something about one of your parents, even if it’s only a dimple.’

I tend to agree with most of Nora’s musings, but I don’t agree with this one. I side more with the analyst.

And second quote: ‘I now believe that what my mother meant when she said ‘Everything is copy’ is this: When you slip on a banana peel , people laugh at you; but when you tell people you slipped on a banana peel, it’s your laugh. So you become the hero rather than the victim of the joke.’

From ‘I Feel Bad About My Neck’ – Nora Ephron

Little Grey Men

You’re a little grey man

Glib and benign

Charismatic too

A very bad sign

No empathy or guilt

No conscience or remorse

Impulsive, grandiose

And callous of course

Lying is your forte

It’s the best you can be

Manipulative and cunning

That’s you to a T

With your superficial charm

As your main claim to fame

You charmed the socks off me

Again and again

Could have fooled me forever

But the truth is out

I’ve got your number

I know what you’re about

You didn’t succeed

I think you had a fail

I dodged that bullet

Escaped that jail

Little grey men

And women are here

Blending in so well

That they almost disappear

In families and at work

Among our very kin

Pretending to be nice

Destroying from within

Kings and Queens of the cowards

There’s many of them

They don’t deal in colour

These grey woman and men

Wolf in sheep’s pelt

They hide from the light

They’re very good at hiding

Right here in plain sight

When I meet your like again

I can’t guarantee

That I won’t be burned again

Another time or three

You go on your way

I took back all you stole

But psychopath-remember now

I SEE you by your soul

Quote Of The Week

‘In making my first appearance before the public, who have treated me well- in fact I may say I am as comfortable now as I was uncomfortable before. I must now bid my kind readers adieu.’

-Joseph Merrick from The Autobiography Of Joseph Merrick (from The True History Of The Elephant Man – Michael Howell and Peter Ford)

Joseph’s Favourite Verse:

‘Was I so tall, could reach the pole

Or grasp the ocean with a span

I would be measured by the soul

The mind’s the standard of the man’

– Isaac Watts

Just Give Me One Minute

Just give me one minute and I’ll be right there. I just need to do this little thing with my hair. I’m not always late, I’m sometimes on time. It’s not always your fault, it’s usually mine. Just give me one minute, just one minute more. I just have to mop up this spill on the floor. I’m busy like Martha, but more like Mary I should be, enjoying the moment, instead of making tea. A silence is needed, to hear the drop of a pin. I’m busy doing nothing, getting into a spin. Need to stay calm and attentive, Mary had it right. Listen to a friend, be serene tonight. I’m learning to love the moment and being still at the core. No time like the present, won’t waste a second more. You look as if you need a friend. I think that is my cue. I don’t need one more minute. I’m here to talk to you.

My Absent Friend

My absent friend

You may be gone

You may not be here at all

My absent friend

I miss you so

As long, as it is tall

My absent friend

I wish you well

I want to see you now

But you’re not present

You’ve not been sent

You’re neither why nor how

My absent friend

I’ll bide my time

For soon I know it SHALL be

That I will see you once again

And there’ll be you and me.

Ancient History

Like the Sumarians

Where the first river valley flowed

And the Romans

With their emperors and their roads

Like the Egyptians

With their science and tech headstarts

Like the Greeks

And their philosophy and their art

Like the Aztecs

With their agriculture of course

Like the Byzantines

And their exceptional military force

Like the Kush

Where skillful archers were made

Like the steppes

For its routes of travel and trade

Like the Indus valley

For its systems of measures and weights

And their building tricks

Of a highly advanced sort of state

Like the Phoenicians time

And a thousand years at sea

Like the world a long, long time ago

You’re ancient history.

He Chopped Off Her Head

Your eyes were like two pools of blue

Your hair as soft as silk

Your lips were like a red, red rose

Your skin as white as milk

I asked if you would walk with me

I asked you for your hand

You promised to love me true

And I gave you a wedding band

And then we had some very good years

I know that we did thrive

And every day I thought I was

The luckiest man alive

One night you crept into the bed

And you were cold as ice

You had been out all night

And from your lips came lies

I found the man who stole your heart

The man who turned your head

I found the man who took my love

I found him in our bed

I loved you more than life itself

I loved you oh, so much

You have surely broken me

And now my mind is touched

I was enraged, I saw red

I didn’t know what to do

I’m quite sure that I lost my head

Now you will lose yours too

I took an axe high in the air

In frenzy, I did swing

I chopped off your lovely head

And then took back my ring

And before he had a chance to run

I took him out as well

There was some blood, just a bit

Before his body fell

I burned your bodies that same night

And put your heads on stakes

And now you are together forever

And lots of love can make

And now I’ve found another love

Only now it’s me who’s blue

For I’m a rogue and a scoundrel you see

And I am never true

I wish and hope with all my heart

She’ll find me in our bed

With another in adultery

And she’ll chop off my head