The Realm of Possibility Read Online Free

be the subject of the song.
to listen and listen and listen.
    I carry your equipment to gigs.
I am your ride home, your calendar.
I let you choose the radio station, the time.
and in return, yours is the only goodnight I ever need.
    I've lost track of where friendship ends and falling begins.
(this is the foolish refrain of the hopelessly devoted.)
there are times I want to kiss you midsentence.
undo the not-doing with one gesture.
    but I hesitate in the wondering.
she's taken the place that was never mine.
you and i have our sad misdirected love in common.
only yours sings out, while mine is a voice left on the inside.
    I bide my time, pick at the petals, play the good best friend.
you ask me what I'm looking for, and I outline you.
you don't recognize the shape, offer other names.
you say my time will come, and I hope.
    I know this is how the world works.
it would be funny, if it wasn't my heart.
she is the weakness you think of as strength.
while I am the strength you have no idea is there.
    I am the one who knows who you are.
I want you to be happy.
and you could be
with me.

two
    Tyler
    Anton
    Gail
    Jill

My girlfriend is in love with Holden Caulfield
    My girfriend is in love with Holden Caulfield and it is driving me CRAZY. She has read that book thirteen times, which is about eleven more times than she's bothered to read me. Everything she sees now is PHONY. Starbucks is PHONY. Our teachers are PHONY. Society is PHONY. And love-well, love is the phoniest of all. At first I tried real hard to argue, but that made me one of THEM and not HIM. She tells me he is sweet because he wants to stop all of the little children from running off a cliff. And I say can you possibly think of a situation where a group of children would be running towards a cliff? And she says I just DON'T GET IT. Which is her way of saying she just doesn't get me, and how I can get everything so wrong. Not like Holden, who would be like seventy years old right now, but is frozen at this age that I can't wait to leave. She says she misses being a kid, just like Holden misses riding the carousel. But what's going to stop us from getting on the carousel, from sledding at midnight, from candy and crushes? Just because we're having sex doesn't mean we can't kiss. Holden is a failure with girls, and my girlfriend says that's because he hasn't met the right girl, one who'd UNDERSTAND him. She says this the same night weargue for an hour about the fact that I always say “I love you” before she does. I leave the room to sneak us some drinks and when I get back she has THE BOOK out, read so often that it's spineless. Whoever made the cover blank knew what he was doing, because what image of Holden could be stronger than the picture in my girlfriend's head? We've been going out for five months now, sleeping together for two, fighting over who loves who for one. I used to love that she could love a book so much. It was her first present to me. I told her I loved it, when what I really meant was I loved that it was from her. Then I made the mistake of CRITICIZING. I said that Holden seemed pretty sad and she said, yeah, that's because his brother died, and I said it wasn't just that kind of sad. She said maybe it took a certain kind of person to see the truth in it, and because I loved her even then, I said she was right. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought less of it, and the more I thought less of it, the more she thought less of me. And I began to think less of her for thinking less of me. If I took up with hookers, if I drank my daddy's money away, if I ridiculed everyone, it wouldn't be charming. She wouldn't love that in me. And, yes, Holden would keep those kids from falling off the cliff, but WHO WOULDN'T? Does she think I would just fold my arms or give them a pat on the back before they sailed headfirst to the ground? We are all catchers, and it's sad that she doesn't see it. Instead she sees the PHONINESS, she deplores the world even