Poems

Love & Coffee In The Time Of Covid

From six feet away I knew she was the one,
My heart spun after the amber in her eyes locked with mine,
An invisible dart pierced my left side as my body didn’t know where to start,
The cotton protecting her face donned dotted designs,
I couldn’t see her lips but I was sure they were divine,
Underneath my bandana I smiled the whites of my teeth,
But she didn’t notice,
She responded with the bouncing of her feet,
Our parading bodies drew closer,
Too close for comfort,
I wanted to wave, to blink, to grunt, to do anything for her to think,
That maybe I could be her man,
A guy with hand sanitizer, toilet paper, stimulus cash, and clean hands,
But in a flash the mood shifted as she hurried across the street,
My heart fell to pieces as her shoes clamored echoes of defeat,
Not even a glance in my direction as our futures became distant,
In sadness I turned around, already reminiscent,
Of the sparkle in her eyes,
The flow of her long hair,
The…hair on her legs?
The…uh..strong looking calves?
I quickly faced forward – my stride as fast as the wind,
Because my poor vision caught eyes not with a her but a him,
Oh shit I said to myself, I’d been had,
No more going outside without a cup of coffee beforehand.

Standard
Life, Poems, Random Thoughts

English Teacher Crosswalkings

I’m on a quest for a phrasal verb.

Give me an idiom and I’ll give you a high-five.

Give me a few in thirty seconds and I’ll charge you ten euros.

I’m walking down the street, looking like I don’t have any damns to give.

We make eye contact on a corner and somewhere I find one more stashed in my back pocket.

It was hiding next to the multi colored dice and plastic pencil sharpener.

I’m thinking of a person, place, or thing.

Before you can ask the first question, the crosswalk light turns green.

A mechanical voice is presenting us a choice to continue walking.

The mood is now becoming imperative.

I blink twice and you’re gone.

Give me one lie and I’ll tell you two truths.

The first is that you’re beautiful.

The second is farewell.

Standard
Astoria, Montana, Oregon, Portland, Random Thoughts, Seaside, Seattle, Travel, Washington

NorthWesting

NorthWesting

Note: Written in various places, finished somewhere else.

For a brief instant a sudden impulse is prompting my eyes to quickly escape from the magnet of computer screen to scan the immediate airport horizon. Crying babies, airport staff speaking on intercoms, muffled side conversations from nearby seat neighbors, and streams of luggage donning pedestrians are erupting into my senses.

White iPod earbuds spooning with my eardrums, I can see my reflection from a front window.  The task of completing this blog post is starting to elevate to the top of an internal list of layover priorities. My eyes bounce downward towards the pending work in progress.

It’s about 7pm in Philadelphia and in one hour I’ll be pacing through a departure gate towards a plane destined for Lisbon, Portugal. American Airlines Flight 738 will land at around 9am and this will mark the start of a six to seven week hiatus in Europe.

Sitting at Gate 26 I can see a growing congregation of future plane partners developing to the left and to the right from where I’m seated.

This post is coming about a week too late. Since coming back from a trip to see friends in Missoula, Seattle, and Oregon, time for writing has been scarce. After visiting the Northwest for a gaggle of weeks (September 28-October 17)  I flew to New York on October 20th to visit some great friends in Jack, Jimmy, Kelsey, and Mark but more details about that will come in the next blog post!

In total there were six days spent between Seattle, Portland, Seaside, and Astoria.

During my final day in Montana on October 11th, my good friend Ryan dropped me off at the Missoula Airport.  A quick flight to Washington was hopped. At the University of Washington campus I was greeted by Holly, a good friend who was met in Murcia, Spain. She was kind enough to host me for two days. She, her boyfriend and fellow Murcia buddy Alvin, and myself got some delicious El Camion Mexican Food, toured Gasworks Hill, and wandered around the trendy Fremont neighborhood. The last time the three of us hung out was when we got ice cream in a random Spanish plaza over a year ago. On my second day in Seattle I met up with Vanessa, a salsa dancing friend who I hadn’t seen in over five years. We spent the day catching up over a walk around South Lake Union then capping the day with delicious vegan food at the No Bones Beach Club.

img_0621

(myself and Vanessa)

img_0541

(myself, Holly, Alvin)

After two days a Bolt Bus sent me from downtown Seattle to downtown Portland, Oregon. Three days of non stop rain was waiting for me upon arrival. The main reason for coming to PDX was to catch up with Tucker and Kristina, two close friends from Missoula who moved out there over three years ago. We hadn’t seen one another since August of 2012 so a reunion was necessary. Between Swedish breakfast at Cafe Broder, dangerous impulse shopping at Powell’s Books, and dabbling in scores of delicious craft beer, the stay in Portland was great. The city boasts a chill energy that is hard to replace.

Note: Tucker, Kristina, and myself failed to take a group picture. For those who don’t already know what they look like, let me tell you that they are very very attractive people 🙂

Typhoon-like weather prevented me from taking a bus to Seaside, Oregon to see Kyle and Charlie on Saturday of that week. The coast received a large storm with winds almost reaching one hundred miles an hour. In Portland the trees waved with stressful discontent and scattered throughout various streets one could see debris from fallen branches. Luckily Sunday was more mild and within two hours an Amtrak bus delivered me to the grey skied coastline. Kyle and I used to live together in Missoula a few years back, and Charlie is a great friend who I knew during the early days of college. It was my first time in Seaside so we did an obligatory hike around Haystack Rock near Cannon Beach, got some savory coffee at Sleeping Monk, and spent the evening in nearby Astoria at Fort George Brewery, Buoy Beer Company, then at the Voodoo Room.

img_0665

(Charlie, Kyle, a random dude)

On Monday, October 17th I bid farewell to the Pacific Northwest and returned home to Sausalito. It was truly special to see everyone during that span of time, and I feel blessed that we didn’t lose contact. I hope that our next reunion happens a lot sooner than later (Except Kyle, that can wait a couple more years…)(That’s a joke, sorry).

A further blog post is necessary for talking about New York, so updates are on the way!

Have a great day, thanks for checking out this blog. You look really good, keep up the ship-shape work 🙂

~ Daniel Catena

Standard
Poems, Random Thoughts

Wandering

IMG_0411

My inspiration is wandering. 

Maybe it went to the store. 

Perhaps its in bed having a snore.

Possibly it’s in the back seat of my car.

Oh gosh please not be far. 

My inspiration is wandering.

Did it get deported?

Did it turn into a tortoise?

Should I have it reported?

Dare I say it’s been aborted?

My inspiration is wandering.

I remember when I liked to write.

It was freeing like a kite.

Now I stare into computer screen.

Wondering where my mind has been.

My inspiration is wandering.

This isn’t funny anymore.

Without you I feel bored.

Was it something I said?

Can I offer you some olive bread?

Far away is where I last felt inspired.

Babe, please don’t say you’re tired.

I need to start wandering. 

Standard