This year I don't have any rules, so I'm starting with a poem so long it only appears in full online. I was arrested by Matthew Yeager's A JAR OF BALLOONS or THE UNCOOKED RICE when I first read (part of) it for three reasons, two of which I think are common to many people. A lot of people love to answer questions, especially questions about themselves. A lot of people love lists. And then I used to carry around a couple of index cards filled with conversational topics, inspired by a book on being socially successful that I picked up while waiting for a computer at the Silver Spring library. I made the mistake of showing these cards to my kids once and they ridiculed me mercilessly—I still think the cards were a pretty good idea, but I probably should have kept their existence a secret. Anyway, finding this poem was a little flashback to that episode, like clearing a handful of receipts from the bottom of my purse and being reminded of something interesting about myself.
Grey in my head, gray in print, by the way.
