she maps everything...

Her son's favorite burrito joints...

 

"This little map celebrates my mastery of the “My Maps” feature on Google Maps, introduced to me by my son Greg, who also happens to be my webmaster and computer guru. Obviously, he's a huge burrito fan. The text at the bottom("I like burritos") is a nod to Greg's wife Yenari, for whom he is learning essential Korean"

Or the New York City Marathon...

Or the journey of a person...

                                                              -Redstone Studios

I wonder if I can stay put, if I can rest in one spot,

just long enough for you to get here

and find me.

I’m floating, trying, but

I’m losing my bearings while I play it cool,

while I pretend that I’m not thinking

of what dress I’ll wear when we have our first picnic

of what I’ll order when we stay in and watch a movie.

Tether me to this place,

where my heart skips at the sight and sound and feel of your name

on paper or in the air.

I’m letting myself sail on this breeze,

listening to the susurrus of my insides.

I am scared,

damn, I’m scared.

And a million other things.

***

You gave me your card.

A token, a fingerprint, a static timestamp

of the night you started to stick.

You left it on my nightstand.

It’s still on my nightstand.

Sometimes it’s covered

by a book or a glass of water or a hair clip,

and sometimes I’ll pull it out from under, just to remember

what it feels like to know

where to find you.

So I’ll do my very best to wait, patiently, painfully,

and as gracefully

as I can.

just do me a favor

And find me.

portrait of grief

         Jayendra Bhatt was a rickety old man, at least at first glance. He would careen down the sidewalk using his old cane as if it were a prop to make his grandchildren laugh.  “He had this funny British-Indian accent,” said Kush Bhatt, 15, his youngest grandchild. “He would say things like, ‘make haste’ when he wanted us to hurry and ‘take heed’ when he wanted us to listen.”  Those were phrases he once often used on students as a Professor and Dean at Sardar Patel University in Anand, a city in the western Indian state of Gujarat. He was a scholar, philosopher, athlete, and boxer (and though he looked delicate in his old age, he still had the muscles to prove it). An avid reader, Bhatt always had a book in hand. Indeed, in his very last moments, before dying of a heart attack while lying in his bed, Bhatt took his final breath with a book rested on his chest.  Bhatt was an atheist who believed that happiness was essential to life, and that it came from peace within the heart, not from outside forces. “Every day he would ask the same thing when I got home from school,” Kush added. “He would ask, ‘Are you happy?’ I would say, ‘Yeah Dada, I’m happy.’ Then he'd smile and say, ‘Good, that’s all.’” 

in memoriam, 4/5/08