anniversaries.

five.
five long ones.
uh-huh.
five long years.
that's right, neighbors.
today IS the day.
the five year anniversary.
yeah.
the Folk Life & Liberty Fortress has been inhabited by warrior poetry
for half a mutha-F*ing decade.
that's expert.
berserker bonfires;
ferocious flowergardens;
nothing rooms and something rooms;
grand improvements;
grandiose destruction;
mummified human feet;
new beginnings;
whimpering endings;
small victories;
tragic losses;
and really real life have ALL unfolded,
and subsequently been documented.
there are true stories becoming history in this place every day.
...and that's the best part.
for five years, in a row,
through each and every brutal winter and fleeting summer,
and all the raking and mowing and shoveling in between,
i've called this place home.
this door is all that holds all of it in:

it doesn't seem strong enough to contain the amount of living
and dying that's gone on inside these rooms and halls.
maybe it's capable because most of the liveliness has largely
been the province of enduring hard styles and hard times,
and all the deaths have been petty metaphors.
that's just What Is.
the truth, like the rest of the place,
is pretty busted, but it's as awfully mighty as it is mightily awful.
stay ugly, stay dope.
that's what living these past 1,826 days has been a study in.
i might be doing it wrong, or doing it poorly, at best,
but i'm gonna keep doing it until the house collapses in on itself.
or i do,
and that's something, i suppose.
*
five years later.
that's a tough one, kids.
nothing is where it was supposed to be.
all the imaginings of this future were way off.
the big rewards of my five year plan have been postponed indefinitely.
the work required to achieve it has doubled every year,
and the finish-lines have run away faster than i can chase 'em.
the rough edges haven't worn smooth,
and the prospects of a last minute windfall of good fortune
are about as likely to happen as the rabbit rabbit spellcasting i spoke
this morning in the face of august's first light contains any real magic.
it's not what i thought it would be.
none of it.
and that's the truth.
it isn't pretty, but it is real.
like i said-
stay ugly, stay dope.
that's the new five year plan,
pending review of the assets and options.
the Folk Life & Liberty Fortress is still where i am,
and i'll assume it is still where i am supposed to be.
five years later,
it's STILL all really happening.
that's the whole entire point;
never quiet, never soft.....