Thursday, March 01, 2012

11:43 PM

Essay writing takes out alot of the happiness in me, especially after 3 weeks of them looming overhead. then again, after these 500 words to cut and all the footnotes to put in, my work will be done forever and ever. this is the last formative essay I will ever had to write in my life as an LSE student. woah.

The Mass has ended go in peace

—not in knowledge, but in calm; not in indifference,
but nearly. Under bullying fog the white houses
stand with effort on the coast, the tides teasing
the scrub blue, the land beneath hassled by waves,
drowning in salt-wine. The lichen, as scalloped and ridged
as the cliffs, breathes red and gold; its smell, like the waft
of earth to heaven, is nearly imperceptible, a touch of fish-rot
and smoke. (I asked, Lord, for stillness and lack of concern.)
The town here could be wiped clean from the land—
no streak or smear of roofs, no smudge of walls.
But the people go on painting the village white.
The weathered wood chokes on its dust; the new whiteness
laughs through fog. I asked for acceptance and got the reek
of paint and a bright house. I can see inside the house: a woman,
sweating and bent, putting away the rollers and the cans.

- K A Hays