Days I Enjoy by Victoria Sackville-West
Days I enjoy are days when nothing happens,
When I have no engagements written on my block,
When no one comes to disturb my inward peace,
When no one comes to take me away from myself
And turn me into a patchwork, a jig-saw puzzle,
A broken mirror that once gave a whole reflection,
Being so contrived that it takes too long a time
To get myself back to myself when they have gone.
The years are too strictly measured, and life too short
For me to afford such bits of myself to my friends.
And what have I to give my friends in the last resort?
An awkwardness, a shyness, and a scrap,
No thing that's truly me, a bootless waste,
A waste of myself and them, for my life is mine
And theirs presumably theirs, and cannot touch.
Art by Marijke Buurlage
Recommended listening: Shad Kon Jan-e-Man - Afghan Women's Orchestra Zohra
Links of the Day: When Ganja fell in love with Mahua
How a Grad Student Found Spyware That Could Control Anybody's Iphone