Brain dead. I most certainly feel brain dead. I guess that qualifies me to write following the theme of "The Edge", the edge of insanity! Too much school work, too much mixing of Victorian Edwardian literature, with feminism, patriarchy, norms, racism, racialism, etc. etc.

So, I'll touch on the topic of insanity. I have always found this an interesting topic, one of my aunts is into iridology--a method whereby a person examines your eyes or irises and are then able to tell all sorts of things about you. She looked in my eyes during one of those infamous family reunions we have and told me I showed a tendency for not being completely sane. Well, if it helps my writing to be a little on the edge of insanity, so be it, we use what we have. ;)

Two books that are fantastic, "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath, and my favorite of the two, "Woman on the Edge of Time" by Marge Piercy (Note: Author of "He, She, and It" which is truly one of my favorite books of all time, a must read!). After reading both, not at one time, I wrote this poem:

Hope in a crack
or ray of light
4/8/00

She walks
eyes to the ground
chin to her chest
shoulders hunched
against the
onslaught
of life

as if trying
to take up
the least
space possible
in a world
too big
yet infinitely
too small.

She darts
occasional glances
at the glass
jar barrier
confining her
hoping
not expecting
a crack
or a ray of
Light
from Mattapoisett--

but she is
trapped too sane
in a world
where only
the blind walk
eyes ahead
shoulders straight
free.

What does it mean, you ask? I'm not sure, I think it is interesting to wonder who exactly are the insane ones, and perhaps some people we think of as insane simply have knowledge, like Connie in "Woman on the Edge of Time", that the rest of us are missing. Perhaps it is those who see life the clearest that have the hardest time living, and the only ones who can walk nonchalantly through life are those who are blind. Doesn't someone say that there is a very thin line between insanity and genius? I believe it. But maybe I'm jsut hoping that dot in my iris that says I'm insane is really a dot in my iris that says I'm genius and set on a course to writing the next great American novel!