We Who Are Your Closest Friends by Phillip Lopate, 1943
we who are
your closest friends
feel the time
has come to tell you
that every Thursday
we have been meeting
as a group
to devise ways
to keep you
in perpetual uncertainty
frustration
discontent and
torture
by neither loving you
as much as you want
nor cutting you adrift
your analyst is
in on it
plus your boyfriend
and your ex-husband
and we have pledged
to disappoint you
as long as you need us
in announcing our
association
we realize we have
placed in your hands
a possible antidote
against uncertainty
indeed against ourselves
but since our Thursday nights
have brought us
to a community of purpose
rare in itself
with you as
the natural center
we feel hopeful you
will continue to make
unreasonable
demands for affection
if not as a consequence
of your
disastrous personality
then for the good of the collective Art by Patricia Schappler
Recommended listening: Free Ride - Nick Drake Treat Her Better - Mac Demarco (Collective Arts Black Box Sessions)
Links of the Day: The Moja Club (Socks subscription, anyone?) Hot Wheels Road Trip
I Get So Annoyed When 'Cool' Young Women Say They Are Not Feminists: Arundhati Roy Meditation for Beginners