Virginia Mori, Jump (All the art in this issue is hers)

We had a poetry magazine in college

called “The Blue Moon” and once my roommates and I fell in love with the world’s saddest and most wistful little poem. This is all I remember of it

He don’t smile no more He don’t smile  I am ill today Everything is not okay Today is not my lucky day

and I also think that might just be the whole thing. I hope it is because it doesn’t need anything else. It’s perfect as is, and furthermore this is the real poem inside millions of other poems. This poem is probably why poetry.   We used to chant the “I am ill today” stanza in small, sad-funny voices when we were ailing. It’s the best when you can indulge and poke a hole in your self-pity at the same time.

The point is: I am ill today.

I have the thing where you have a headache that’s so awful it makes you sick to your stomach plus also a feeling like a high-pitched, buzzing, vibrating whine from head-to-toe. And outside it’s 2019. So this is that. I nearly didn’t Zephyr, it’s been so horrid, but then I saw Virginia Mori’s drawing (the one up top) and was inspired to jump very low “over” the hedge of writing this issue.

I tried out for cheerleading in 1985 and had a lot of school spirit and was pretty cute but when I jumped as hard and high as I could, my toes still fully scraped the floor. I did not make the squad. Kim Endresen was pretty and she could jump but she was very quiet so she also didn’t make the squad. If they could have combined us, we’d have either made the squad or been a very quiet person who couldn’t jump.

WHAT I’M GOING TO DO NOW IS DEPOSIT SOME WISPY, MELANCHOLY, GOTH TREATS IN HERE that I think are good for passing the time if you are ill today/it is not your lucky day

1. A Discovery of Witches is a television show you should watch starring witches, vampires, demons, cute scenery, and today’s Even Better Rupert Everett, aka Matthew Goode, who always is.  

  2. Werner’s Nomenclature of Colors 

You can flip through what seems like the entire book at the Public Domain Review.   3. Handsome Devil Puppets 

David Bowie, Tilda Swinton, Edgar Allan Poe = holy smoke, eek, cool but SEI SHONAGON? A motherfathering Sei Shonagon marionette? GTFO. A muchness.   4. Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab   These are the most goth possible perfume oils but I have one of their products and it’s ridiculously dreamy. Their descriptions are also v. entertaining, like so:  

Bonus: They have a whole activist line, the proceeds of which go to all manner of fine causes.  5. Getting books out from the public library on Kindle so you don’t have to worry about taking them back because they disappear on their own when it’s time  Books like this: 

  Oh, Zephyrtown. We made it through the whole newsletter. I didn't see it happening but it happened.     

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