My supply of poems is nearly exhausted. I'm sure that I've written plenty of other poems, but my friend supplied me with my favorites, so I don't expect that I'll be searching them out more once I exhaust this list.

This poem, in particular, was not one of my favorites. I am only posting this here because it was kept by my friend. I'll comment more about it at the bottom. When you trudge through this, know that I'm wincing as I paste it in. Its name makes me too transparent, so I won't write it here.

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When I was strong, you made me weak
by teaching me shame
When I was brave, you made me afraid
by teaching me heartache

A black and white bird:
"you look so familiar."
"is that what you heard?"
This river flows through us.

"that never happened."
Were both of us liars?
What was our passion?
"you're playing with fire"

When I was intelligent, you made me confused
by teaching me curiosity
When I was adventurous, you made me content
by showing me love

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Bleck! There it is. I wrote it around the time I was in highschool, and so it's in the style that I utilized at that time. The uninterpretable nonsense in the middle, riddled with cliche and vague references to a then-recent relationship, is characteristic of my style at the time. It reflects a period I'm sure everyone goes through wherein I had a lot of angst, but wasn't quite able to articulate why. The first and last stanzas convey misapprehensions of my own experiences, which I now suppose were misapprehended even yet, and which I'd like to think time has clarified, but I'm still not sure about how much legitimacy can be justly lent to a person's pubescent emotions. Don't people often mention and dramatize the "magic" of "young love"? But isn't the "magic" of those emotions simply a product of young people's misunderstandings about the same emotions? Often when we don't understand the things we're experiencing, we attribute wonder to them.

Speaking of magic and pimples, I've taken the dive and brought my nerdiness to new heights. My coworkers started a game of D&D, and they asked me to DM. Most of them had never played, and the ones who have played lacked confidence, so I'm learning both to play and to DM at the same time. This Saturday will be my third "session" (where sessions are usually about 5 hours long). When I first started researching it, I wasn't aware of the wealth of pre-made adventures online, or their merits, so I made a "world" with some things happening in it. This has naturally led to the characters discovering several nooks that I never bothered to think about in my world, and I'm getting better at preparing as well as BSing my way out of those.

Also, I'm in Atlanta, GA right now, attending a training event for my work. It's at once very interesting and very boring. I'm truly riveted by every idea proceeding from the mouth of my presenter, if only I can stay awake. I miss Chowon, but I knew that we would spend time apart now and then because of my work, and so I'm not threatened by the experience of being separated. I trust God for her safety.

"Good job finding a rental car."