the library

Lyrics

​ii. the library SUSAN ​during the days ​i'd drift through the rooms of my grandmama's house ​scuffling through closets and cupboards ​excavating her mad collection ​of knickknacks and relics and oddball curios ​the house was packed ​with hoardfuls of jewels and junk: ​nautilus shells ​metal matchbox cars ​pamphlets and puzzles ​and peculiar pastry tools ​and a stunning exhibition ​of devil and dragon and demon figurines ​disturbing little icons ​gathered from all around the world ​there was this one cute green dragon that i loved: ​a pūķis (a light shines on sadie's cabaret table, where sadie has discreetly pulled out a beautiful serpentine dragon puppet. this is POOKIE; she is friendly, mischievous, and a little sinister.) POOKIE (SADIE) ​pook pook pook! SUSAN ​a latvian household dragon that steals and hoards treasures for ​her master ​legend said if you didn't feed her for her services she would ​burn your house down ​i named her pookie and put her on my nightstand POOKIE ​hello miss susan! ​i have such wonders to show you! ​sweet precious trinkets and treasures! ​look here, look here, look here, look here! SUSAN ​vinyl! ​a cobwebbed closet full of stacks of dusty vinyl ​and a technics sp-10 ​i filled the house with music ​i can play music ​as loud as i want ​there's no one to tell me to turn it down ​i danced and screamed: ​i'm alone! ​i'm alive! ​i'm alright! ​hank williams and patsy cline ​nine recordings of winterreise ​billie holiday, blood on the tracks ​and rumours— POOKIE, BECKETT & WOLF ​listen to the wind blow SUSAN ​a curated collection for a broken heart WOLF {howl} SUSAN ​and books ​my god, this woman's books ​every room, floor to ceiling ​with stacks and stacks of books ​have you ever fallen in love with someone ​by looking at their books? ​but they were totally disorganized; ​just chaos everywhere ​my little ocd brain lit up ​and i became a little librarian POOKIE ​mmm yes please miss susan! ​tidy tidy tidy! ​pook pook pook! ​tidy tidy! ​pook pook pook! ​tidy tidy! SUSAN (sorting books) ​fiction, fiction, non-fiction, non-fiction ​fiction, fiction, non-fiction, non-fiction ​latvian, latvian, fiction, non-fiction ​fiction, non-fiction, latvian, latvian ​latvian, fiction, fiction, fiction ​non-fiction— ​non-fiction? ​non-fiction is harder than fiction ​after the first few days ​i had them separated by room ​and then ​it was time to alphabetize: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z ​nothing beats alphabetical order! A B C D A B C D A D G K J J H N M U ​atwood, austen, bronte and bronte ​didion, jackson— ​so much good stuff! ​butler, lessing, murdoch, morrison, oates ​wharton— ​and a surprising number of trashy romance novels ​by danielle steele ​there were men too ​mostly sci-fi guys, beats, and poets: ​bukowski, cummings, bradbury, kerouac, simic ​poetry got its own section: ​six solid shelves of thin modernist volumes ​no collected works, always the original editions ​in some of the books ​i would find newspaper clippings of obituaries ​on raymond carver's she had written "a sad day." ​"a sad day" ​in green sharpie ​plays—not that many plays ​but non-fiction, oh man— ​grandmama's interests were all over the place ​certain themes started to emerge: ​landscape architecture, interior design ​animism, trickster myths, and fairy tales; ​including several lavishly illustrated editions ​of the three little pigs ​erotica and polyamory—grandmama! ​jungian psychology ​drugs and disease ​mental health ​autobiographies by people who'd tried to take their lives ​and biographies of people who did ​depression runs in my family ​depression and addiction POOKIE ​miss susan? ​what's this? (she holds up a huge bag of weed.) SUSAN ​i suppose i should also mention here ​that during this time in latvia ​i had with me an absolutely atrocious amount of weed