New Shiloh
July 19, 2008, Matthew Good 
Baby Penguins are freezing to death in the Antarctic because it’s raining. Starbucks are closing in the hundreds and people are starting petitions to save them rather than realizing that it would be faster to just invest in a cheap coffee maker and a can of MJB.
The Pope’s sorry for Catholic priests buggering kids – for God knows how long. Obviously an apology makes everything better. The Americans will probably have to issue some half assed apology to the Iraqis at some point as well, I’d imagine, but at least by then they’ll be able to take consolation in the fact that they’ll finally be able to get a Starbucks, an egg McMuffin, and gawk at the Sunshine girl in the paper.
Amira is from Basra. One day she hopes to open her own fashion boutique.
The skies outside are blue, the weather warm, but I ain’t going nowhere. The streets are quiet downtown on Saturday mornings, even down here in the dregs. Everyone’s sleeping down at the park probably, hung over like the rest of the city, though ironically condemned for it. No brunches at which to exchange stories about last night’s wild time, just shopping carts and another eighteen hours to kill in which to get loaded so as to forget that tomorrow is an inevitability. Another eighteen hours in the mental Hornet’s Nest of New Shiloh.
The dogs pounce, attack my face, I groggily throw my feet over the side of the bed and sit there with my head in my hands. I take them out, feed them, and they settle in on the concrete floor because it’s the coolest place in the apartment. I get a cup of coffee, I pop my meds and look out the window while thousands of dollars worth of normality sit in a drawer in the bathroom behind me. That drawer, the pill bottles in it, mean that I’m not in the park.
I light a cigarette, hit the spacebar and wait for this machine to flicker on. I click on Word and begin…
“Baby Penguins are freezing to death in the Antarctic…”
Sherman found Grant standing under a tree that first night. Walking up to him he said “Well, we’ve had the devil’s own day”.
“Yes,” said Grant, “Lick ‘em tomorrow though”.
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Such beautiful entry to wake up to on a Saturday morning.
Break my heart picture. You are absolutely the most brilliantly saddest person that I have ever come across. What would the world be without the pills? Pills to destroy, pills to heal, pills to motivate, pills to pacify, pills for energy, pills for sleep, pills to create, pills to kill. What would the world be without the pills? Couldn’t it just rain on all of the pills? Could someone please tell me anything that tastes good at Starbucks?
incredible, I am speechless. There is something about the way you write that just makes me sit and think.
[quote comment="58875"]incredible, I am speechless. There is something about the way you write that just makes me sit and think.[/quote]
I second that! It also makes me feel as if I am sitting right there with you.
good read. good morning.
“Baby Penguins are freezing to death in the Antarctic because it’s raining. Starbucks are closing in the hundreds and people are starting petitions to save them”
In what kind of world we’re leaving? :(
Priorities man. Screw the penguins, we’re a little owly this morning because we didn’t get our double dooda supreme twice rewarmed over open fire with goat’s milk froth and pink caramel lightning.
(I just bought an eight dollar coffee maker at Xcess Cargo and I get my large can for $4.99 on sale….I think I enjoy a lovely cup of java in the morning for about 12 cents. I feel like I’m cheating the system).
I’m glad to hear that someone’s sticking up for the “residents” of Oppenheimer though. Ticketing the homeless…that’s a trip. Who’s bothering who again? My homeless friend in TO just got one awhile ago …he’s had to go to court over it. How dare he be so selfish as to sleep on that bench, people want to sit there with their coffee and feed the pigeons for Chrissake. Gawd.
When hell freezes over, let’s hope it rains there too then.
Anyhow, if you get a chance - go over and read (my friend) Tony’s blog. I wish a little of him would rub off on everyone.
http://homelessmanspeaks.wordpress.com/
To ignore is to not condemn. Why is it man chooses to destroy that of which he is afraid he is loosing? Homeless blog- hmm, don’t know what to do with that one.
clock wise
Beautiful post.
Thanks for the link Deb. I’ve just read the first few entries and I’m intrigued to say the least. Very honest, very thought provoking.
Good morning, I’m reading this and smelling bacon.
I realize it’s not actually morning, I just have a night shift.
[quote comment="58880"]Priorities man. Screw the penguins, we’re a little owly this morning because we didn’t get our double dooda supreme twice rewarmed over open fire with goat’s milk froth and pink caramel lightning.
(I just bought an eight dollar coffee maker at Xcess Cargo and I get my large can for $4.99 on sale….I think I enjoy a lovely cup of java in the morning for about 12 cents. I feel like I’m cheating the system).
I’m glad to hear that someone’s sticking up for the “residents” of Oppenheimer though. Ticketing the homeless…that’s a trip. Who’s bothering who again? My homeless friend in TO just got one awhile ago …he’s had to go to court over it. How dare he be so selfish as to sleep on that bench, people want to sit there with their coffee and feed the pigeons for Chrissake. Gawd.
When hell freezes over, let’s hope it rains there too then.
Anyhow, if you get a chance - go over and read (my friend) Tony’s blog. I wish a little of him would rub off on everyone.
http://homelessmanspeaks.wordpress.com//quote
Hey Deb,
I read this entire blog today.. sheesh. That man is amazing. Reminds me of Albert : ) How did you happen to meet him? If you dont mind my asking.
Just imagine how much travel mugs & homemade coffee could do for the world’s carbon foot print & litter problem.
“Anyhow, if you get a chance - go over and read (my friend) Tony’s blog. I wish a little of him would rub off on everyone.
http://homelessmanspeaks.wordpress.com/”
Seeds of beauty, even in the darkest of places….Matt, your writing–so restrained and poignant and biting, and Deb, your friend’s blog which captivates me. Thank you to both of you for posting these treasures for me to find this morning.
“That drawer, the pill bottles in it, mean that I’m not in the park.”
Absolute, distilled-to-its-essence truth. I have a similar drawer, and I think that would surprise a lot of people I know. It’s an overused expression, but one that runs through my brain everyday, countless times, and propels me to do the things I do and fight the fights I enage in: “there but for the grace of God go I”…… Substitute modern pharmaceuticals, good parents, a decent brain, whatever you want for God.
Again, thank you for cutting directly to the core of things…
dear matthew
i read your blog whenever I can i drink it in, like a desert traveller slagging my thirst
i am older than you, and you help me understand things i know little about
so why do i read your blog as often as i do?
because i have loved a man for 8 years who is bipolar no matter how hard i try to love
him he pushes me away
i grasp at anything that will help me understand him
he confuses and confounds me
yet he has also given me more joy than i have ever known in my life
i just wish i could one day, have him see himself the way i see him
he is a truly amazing human being and matthew so are you
thank you for your words, and thank you for sharing your thoughts
when my soul is aching for answers
I like penguins.
I had to look up “Sunshine girl.” Apparently American newspapers are behind the times.
I’m always sad when it’s raining. No scratch that-when I’m sad, it’s always raining. Maybe tomorrow it will rain penguins, or polar bears, or an extra foam no fat latte. Maybe tomorrow it will rain Al Gore.
Great post, saddens me though.
I’m too utterly exhausted right now to think of anything to say other than: I really, really liked this one.
(@ revisited: also look up “Sun chain” and you’ll see your use of the term “newspaper” was a bit misguided.)
Fantastically poignant as always!
I sincerely hope these are signs of that new book in the works…
Ironic how we need the pills to live but sometimes the pills themselves limit you so much you don’t feel like you’re doing much living at all. Sucks to be alone. Those are depressing thoughts…made even more so by the freezing penguins. Here I sit in my new apartment away from everything I know worrying about corporate sales standards and diamond inventories. Successfully living life as obliviously as those people signing the Starbucks petition.
At least I make my own coffee at home, there’s a positive.
Matt: You need a hug goddammit… or look into Benji’s sweet little face and let him make you smile.
:)
Beautiful
I sit here reading more and more and more. I think about as to what to write. I smoke one more, and have another drink. Later i may have a rye, to forget or to forget im unaware. im often unable to recognize the points in your writings. it saddens me, but perhaps find my own answers in them. its hard not to support, is supporting a little supporting alot? I love penguins! Id like to know if the picture above is a painting, or a sad cold rain with a wind so that the penguins are literally frozen?