Saturday, June 8, 2013

I've got the whole world in my hands



for Sara, Maggie and Sally


A couple of pieces of mail that were shoved through the door slot today looked as if they'd been chewed. I swear I saw teeth marks on the corners, and one was ripped.  Something had chewed off the corner of the confidential report of Sophie's conservatorship, submitted to the judge downtown. I sat on my bed and read the recommended seven powers that The Husband and I would "gain" upon the judge's decision later this month. Los Angeles is beautiful today, like most other days and despite yesterday's mayhem in Santa Monica, the sky is still blue and the bougainvillea riotously pink. The breezes are blowing even as sirens wail.  The Limited Conservatorship law recognizes the important principle that persons with developmental disabilities should not, on the basis of their disability alone, be deemed  unable to exercise certain rights, I read. The sky is still blue and the bougainvillea pink. It is not likely that she could respond appropriately to an emergency, such as an earthquake or a fire. Breezes blow and sirens wail.  I also received a copy of my poet friend Sara's new collection called Lake Effect, and opened to the world has broken blazing from a poem titled Tree of Heaven.  In another envelope was a gift for Sophie from Sally and Maggie of Maggie World, a beautiful necklace that spelled out DREAM. Again, given her significant deficits in communication, self-care and self-safety, the Regional Center recommends granting the power to consent or withhold consent to marry. If I were more beast than human, I'd chew the rest of it up, read only the poetry and swallow, a dream around my neck.

16 comments:

  1. Do it. Swallow, read, dream.

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  2. Aw, thank you so much! I'm still flummoxed that I've got a real live book out in the world (I don't get my copies until June 17, so haven't seen it yet). It's so weird to see 20 years of my life finally come to fruition. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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  3. That last sentence - damn girl, you can write!

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  4. Glad it arrived, but take my advise and put the "dream" on Sophie's wrist because i believe it's a bracelet. If you put that around her neck they will not let you be conservator.

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    1. Maggie World, if that's a bracelet, it would only fit a beast! It's definitely a necklace, and a beautiful one to boot.

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  5. Your writing gets me every time...You deserve your own books in the world, Elizabeth.

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  6. Maggie made me laugh. You, as always, made me sit up straighter in my chair and think, "Whoa," and "Damn."

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  7. i think your writing is unlike anyone else's, hard truth and fantasy all intermingled, and the imagination gloriously unchained!

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  8. I like that bit about being able to withhold consent to marry because that won't make you feel any worse at all!

    I thought Katie was having a seizure today, I think it was only muscle spasms in her legs but I burst into tears and she was on the horse. It didn't help me crying but I thought of your Sophie and I thought of the meds Katie is on and I got scared because nothing goes easy with out kids. Nothing.

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  9. Such a mixed bag ... And the teeth marks are fitting. Lake Effect is such a wonderful title. I remember the lake effect snow in Illinois.

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  10. Such beauty you make from the mail.

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  11. It is interesting that the universe concurred with your instinct to destroy the papers. Perhaps a very strong validation for you that your instincts are correct, the letter and what’s in it is irrelevant. You are a strong and wise woman.

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  12. i love this post. it is perfect. riotous. an apt word for a flower or a mood. much love to you my dear eee.

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  13. Wow. Perfection. It must be so... odd... the guardianship thing. I've been putting it off and I think i know why.

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  14. You are such a buddha. Just holding all the mysteries.

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