we now interrupt: happy birthday, happy birthday

Happy birthday to Ms. Kelly Link. Trampolines for everyone!

Go buy STRANGER THINGS HAPPEN at Powell's or Amazon, or order a t-shirt or coffee mug off that website up there, why don't you?

Were I where you are, Kelly, I'd throw you a party and we'd all come as zombies. Or at least drink them. (In fact, Zombies (the drink) may be an actual zombie contingency plan.)

A birthday poem which hardly fits, but which I like.

Crossroads

by Joyce Sutfen

The second half of my life will be black
to the white rind of the old and fading moon.
The second half of my life will be water
over the cracked floor of these desert years.
I will land on my feet this time,
knowing at least two languages and who
my friends are. I will dress for the
occasion, and my hair shall be
whatever color I please.
Everyone will go on celebrating the old
birthday, counting the years as usual,
but I will count myself new from this
inception, this imprint of my own desire.

The second half of my life will be swift,
past leaning fenceposts, a gravel shoulder,
asphalt tickets, the beckon of open road.
The second half of my life will be wide-eyed,
fingers shifting through fine sands,
arms loose at my sides, wandering feet.
There will be new dreams every night,
and the drapes will never be closed.
I will toss my string of keys into a deep
well and old letters into the grate.

The second half of my life will be ice
breaking up on the river, rain
soaking the fields, a hand
held out, a fire,
and smoke going
upward, always up.

-----

You can find links to all Kelly's fiction online here so you can pay proper tribute by revisiting them. (I refuse to believe that anyone reading these words has never read a KDL story.... so.) Check out the audio file of "Catskin."

worm "Happy Birthday," Concrete Blonde

namecheck Kelly "Birthday Girl" Link