persimmons?

I have only known persimmon through other people. I'm not entirely sure I know what it is.

I imagine a group of children of some mingled, confused ethnicity, laughing and eating persimmon seeds, which exist in potentiality with the children themselves.
I imagine a woman preparing persimmon pie. A man appears. They are both sad to discover the children do not exist.
The children themselves are happy. Having eaten their persimmon, they are sticky with its juices. Soon they will run to the lake and go skinny-dipping and shiver. They will catch pneumonia and stay in bed for weeks and it will all be worth it.

The man and woman are older, now, not so sad. They have a persimmon bush which does not exist, yet takes the place of the children. They had a persimmon flower for awhile, but their neighbors kept talking about it - “I didn't know persimmon was a flower!” and they had to get rid of it. Also, they stopped speaking to their neighbors.
They will move soon, they have decided, somewhere where persimmons grow on trees, and there are lakes.

I long for a day when I, too, can be face-to-face with persimmon, and know it. I worry – have we been in its presence already? Have we spent time together eating something we thought was papaya or parsnip?
Perhaps a persimmon expedition is in our future. We'll start small – Safeway. Giant. Asian/Indian/Mexican groceries.
From there, it's an easy step to the jungle, with its hothouse persimmons and persimmon piranhas around every corner. Persimmon tree frogs will serenade us. We'll stay with our friends and their persimmon tree and their beautiful, wonderful children.

In other news

...it's good to post again.

I highly recommend having a friend who organizes and hosts a 4-hour writing marathon. It's awesome, and mind-blowing. I was a bit numb afterwards, and quite exhausted.

A random piece I wrote somewhere in there:

Tantrum in the City

arms and legs flailing wildly
at first you think everyone will ignore you
but soon enough they start
to throw their own

the cars and buildings join in
doors slamming,
elevators dropping to the ground
in sheer ecstasy

over on the side
the only tree shakes its branches as best it can

headlines in the paper:
mass catharsis hits DC
city will never be the same
elevator repairmen working overtime

Movies Seen Lately

Catch Me if You Can
A trifle by Steven Spielburg, with Leonardo DiCaprio.
I have not been particularly impressed with Leo, but he was pretty decent in this movie. Too bad it was so forgettable. But Emily and I had a pleasant time watching it. We laughed a bit. We groaned at its hokiness. We discussed, over random bits of dialogue, whether this was really a true story. We turned the movie off and went to bed without a second thought.

The Triplets of Belleville
This is a wonderful movie. Oddly enough, it really loses a lot in the transition from the big screen to a TV. I think it's because the movie does such a amazing job of building characters through very small tics and mannerisms that when those subtle effects are even smaller they don't add up as much. Or, cleverly, a big screen makes everything bigger.
And it's the little things that make this one a classic for me. My favorite character has to be the little mechanic who looks, and squeaks, like a mouse.
I could probably do without the last 10 minutes or so (even a silly car chase is still a car chase), and the very very ending just leaves me confused, but I love the rest of it so much I don't care. Not one to see every month, but every few months would make me quite happy.