5 favorite things
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this is in response to a newspaper request in spain that wanted to run “my 5 favorite things”
you know how much i love lists
so
here
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1•
being 14 and hanging out with friends on a bridge over a wide river
that has a train track on it and nowhere else to walk when the train
comes.
2¢
being 14 and not dying on that bridge that attempts to kill me over a
deep river that hopes i die in it.
3™
being 14 and watching biker movies from an outdoor “drive in” movie
screen up in the woods that you can only see at night from a
dangerous railroad bridge over a dark river waiting to swallow me.
4*
being 14 and crossing that bridge late at night when the rain has
turned to ice and the railroad tracks are slippery and when i get
half way across it a train comes around the corner with a bright head
light that blinds me but when i turn back to walk the other way the
shadows it now makes from the bridges steel beams move like a
nightmare so i don’t know where to step and instead have to turn
toward the oncoming train and run into the light very fast before it
enters the bridge and kills me but just escape off in time not to die
again.
5≠
being 15 and having that river rise up and swallow my town,
destroying the bridge that tried to feed me to it and wrecking the
house i live in and the piano that never got played so now i have to
move to arizona where dirty dark deadly rivers have no water at all.
-howe gelb