And now

A few well-chosen words from our contest winner, leigh:

A says to me, laughing, "Mom, you are like a bad performance artist." I reply, "Why bad, why can't I be a good performance artist?" She says, "You know the 'Bad Art' at the restaurant, 'The Friendly Toast'?" I say, "Sure" "Well," A says, "Can that be good art? No, it is bad art!" She goes on to tell me that when she was little, and we ate at this funky eatery, and she saw the velvet Elvis paintings and the found bad art, she asked me what it was, the theme, why was it there. I told her it was 'Bad Art'. So my 13 year old thinks I fall into this category, which of course thrills me in its sophistication and playfulness. She is always observing us and she has great powers as a mimic. I'll say something and she feeds it back in these poetic cadences, teasing. I told her she sounded like Maya Angelou when she "did" me. I say something pedestrian and she recites it, repeats it, like it is a poem, bad art, bad poetry, her mother, a source of great mirth. Here is one of the lines-- which of course won't translate to the page/screen, but I'll write it out anyway...think beat poet, for timing-"What happens pause when dinnertime comes pause and you have not yet had pause your share of meat?" I said it in relation to having dinner, planning dinner. It doesn't make sense to you, does it? It has become this funny line now, and I will be driving along and think of it and laugh, and she tells me she does as well, in school, during gym or math.