Saw The Road last night. Can't stop thinking about the writhing bodies in the basement. I keep trying to imagine a good way they can off themselves. No rope down there? Is it possible to break your own neck? What I find most disturbing about this movie is the realization that if a human is locked in a small room with nothing at all, he/she has no way to end it. There were so many moments in that movie that made me hope they would find a way to kill themselves. Will be on my mind for awhile.

Memory Snow

Remember those snow angels -

down in front of the swings

where we later made that secret pact.

I've been wondering where the first was from

That first Snow Angel.

How is it that the shape of our bodies

on the cold white

forms this other thing?

Is it reasonable to think

that the heaven angel

was born out of snow

And not the reverse?

Later we carved a turtle out of ice

And some words on a tree

And pretended we lived in a little hut made out of sticks

near the metal fence with the green peeling paint.

From "Repulsion"

The Stash

This proverb (previously mentioned) also makes me think of our bathroom when I was young. The book I read it in (complete with folky drawings) was often left there, perhaps on the white hamper. An American child growing up in early '90s Moscow, I didn't realize how funny our little bathroom was. The sink was in a different room. The toilet didn't flush the same way. And on the shelf above it, hidden behind a curtain of fake lace, were stacks and stacks of toilet paper. Toilet paper was hard to find then, so we often brought it back with us after trips outside the country.

It was the same with milk. Whenever it appeared at Stockmanns, the Finnish supermarket, we would buy several cartons and freeze some.

There is nothing appetizing about watery milk with thin slices of ice.

New Night, New Bog

Start right in the middle of things. A pound of salt. It's always been a favorite Russian proverb of mine: To truly get to know someone, you have to eat a pound of salt with them. Other regions may claim this proverb as their own, but I learned it from a small book of Russian proverbs owned by my sister.

Eat a pound of salt with them.

It takes a long time to eat a pound of salt, thus a long time to truly know a person.

Or,

The ordeal of sitting down and eating a pound of salt in one go would bring any two people close together.

I like to think there's other ways this proverb could be interpreted.