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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Toxic Water, Rundown Concrete, and My Best Friend

An overcast day on the Cuyahoga riverfront
Just toxic water, rundown concrete, and my best friend. 
Her hair is wild and burnt red, like 1970s shag carpet
And her thickly-painted-blue eyelids flicker as she laughs.
My hot pink bangs expose my too-cool-for-school attitude
And my corny club t-shirt betrays that too cool, I'm not.
Leaning back on her forearms, she balls a veggie burger wrapper with one hand.
Absentmindedly, I encase the zit on my chin with the lid of my 32-ounce Coke.
She's blowing white air out her pursed lips.
I'm pulverizing ice cubes between my molars.
"This will be a poem when we're thirty," I say.
"Doing everything unhealthy, just to know that we have.
These are The Good Old Days."
She agrees, though she doesn't need to
Because anything I feel, she feels, rest assured.
Someday we'll be thirty and nostalgic
But somehow even now, every second of hanging out is poetry to us.



Chipotle burritos this year: 19
Subscribers: 16,279

Bye, guys! Hopefully I'll see you tomorrow. <3

42 comments:

Callie said...

I really wish I could write like you. You express yourself so well and clearly on paper. Im planning on majoring in creative writing but I know I will never be as good as you are. I hope you write a book one day, cause I will totally buy it!

Katyisgoing said...

Aw, Hayley, this is beautiful.
It makes me nostalgic already.

Elizabeth... said...

Beautiful words, when you're thirty please blog about this poem.

x0brittx0 said...

frick, you're amazing.

ugh - i'm so predictable. all i want to say is "i love the way you write."

but i won't.

Sara said...

This was really beautiful. I absolutely LOVE the way you write; it's so genuine. You are so talented and I look forward to reading your blog everyday :)

Erin said...

I love your poem and that John Green quote you linked to. You're so talented.

Sophie said...

This is so nice.
Thank you for putting effort into your blogs; hyperlinks make me happy.

Joanne said...

It takes real talent to make complete strangers absolutely fall in love with you and the way you write. Also, I think everyone here is jealous that you have a best friend as amazing as Jess.
Please keep posting

A.J. James said...

You never cease to amaze me with your observations. I enjoy your wit and prose daily. Thank you Hayley G Hoover. Thank you.

abbs866 said...

Please explain how you can make eating burgers and chewing ice cubes poetic. Or just teach me. Thanks in advance.
Ohhh, Ever After is on TV. Later, Hayleygator.

joy isobel said...

You're too talented. Stop that, it makes the rest of us look bad ;) Seriously though, you need to grow up and write lots of books so I can buy and read them.

Johanna said...

Whenever I read a great last line to a book/song/poem, I immediately want to get it tattooed somewhere on me. The last line to this is beautiful.

emilysaysgo said...

I love it. It makes me feel like being this age is something to be proud of, rather than trying to get away from it (which is how I usually feel). You're very talented...which I already knew, but it probably never hurts for you to hear it, right?

Tom said...

I recently read John's Printz award speech for Alaska, and he mentioned that the line "Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia" was something The Yeti said to him on their first date ever.

Marlena said...

You are ridiculously brilliant, and I lovelovelove this poem. Like, it reminds me of one of my favorite books of all time, The Realm of Possibility, by David Levithan. Read it. Then...write one like it. =]

Valerie said...

That made me smile.

Brianna said...

You know, you could have just said, "Enjoy your time on Earth." instead of showing off like that. ;)

I want to say that I love reading your blog, but the word "love" doesn't do it justice.

The feeling I get when I read your blog is eerily similar to the feeling I get when I eat the rest of the cookie dough out of the bowl. Bliss.

(I've decided I'm going to try to finish this sentence in every comment. Reading your blog is like ______.) Deal? Deal.

inkstainedpages said...

Wow, Hayley. You are incredibly talented. Thanks for sharing your amazingness with us every day!

Anonymous said...

You are a Christian, right? Have you ever considered sharing your faith with the other 5AGs?

Jess said...

Hey! My eye shadow today wasn't blue; it was black and white! 75% off at Victoria's Secret!!

I'll see you in court, slanderous slutterous.

Nicholas said...

Why is it that only the warm seasons inspire us to do such things as hang out somewhere, just be together with someone, not talking...

I think it has something to do with the fact that the sun is too bright to keep your eyes open and, let's face it, dreaming is easier with your eyes closed.

Rosianna said...

Bah. Teary.

Hannah said...

That was amazing.

I wish I could write like you

=D

Once again, your blog makes me happy

<3

HarryLime67 said...

Oh come on. You're sooo a better writer than this superficial she-ite. I can't believe the number of people calling this drivel "beautiful". Jeez Louise, they are either just too easily impressed, or just sycophants seeking you're approval.

I'm sure I'll be bashed for my opinion (which isn't intended as a personal attack on you, Hayley, just my opinion of this specific blog), but I really suspect that even you don't deem this poetry as representative of your very best work. It’s okay, but it certainly doesn't rise to the level of "beautiful" or of being worthy of something one would get “tattooed” on their body. Psshhaw. Only suck-ups and ass kissers would say that, and I suspect you know that, but as I said, I’m sure I’ll be viewed as just an asshole because I didn’t like this poem, or every single thing you do.

I just don’t think it’s anywhere close to deserving of being viewed as your best work, since in reading your past blogs, your writing skill is exceptional. This poetry just seemed elementary to me, at least when considering where I perceive the bar has been set. And I didn’t set the bar so high… you did, by being some awesome in the past. Please keep writing, please keep trying, just please don’t buy into the unreasonable platitudes from people who think you’re every fart smells like perfume.

BTW, not that their platitudes are necessairily unreasonable. Their opinions are certainly as valid as any of mine. Afterall, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, isn't it.

Leesa said...

I wish I could read some of what HarryLime67 writes. I like some of the images this invokes, but I see Harry's points as well.

Anonymous said...

Well this was a pleasant surprise :)

I think this is good, although I'm not sure I entirely get it.

Props to HarryLime67 for having the courage to say that. I see his points although I do not agree with how derogatory he's being towards people who may genuinely like this.

Allison said...

:snaps!:

Nokorola said...

That was so amazing and enjoyable, thank you for that Hayley.

maddy said...

That was amazing. I know that everyone else has said it, but you really are a very talented writer.

barefootfiona said...

Every day that I go on the internet (which is probaby 10 out of 7), I visit Twitter, Facebook, DailyBooth, YouTube, Blogspot, DeviantArt, my e-mail and the Student Room. I always leave your blog for last, like I always leave my fishfingers for after the broccoli and runner beans and mash. I love fish fingers. You are my virtual fish finger.

What a strange metaphor.

On another note, I like the poem, but I like the image behind it more. Not to whine, but that is what I've missed and yearned for all my life. And no matter what the future brings, I will never have had a best friend in school, as a teenager, with whom to discover and experiment and mourn and chill and bake cakes and talk. You are so lucky to have such a great friend and, not that you ever will, but I hope neither of you forget that.

Anonymous said...

ok lil miss hoover, you must make a promise to us all that you will write many fabulous books and get them all published with harcover glossy covers. K? Wonderful. =]
and if you are feeling extra generous, would you mind posting an excerpt of one of ur stories on this lil bloggie blog here? cuz that would be amazing..

**have a sparkling day**

<33

Allyson;; said...

What may look like two average teenagers hanging out around town to an onlooker, is a never-ending analogous poem in minds of the two friends.
But it takes a talented writer to translate this into words.

Beautiful Job!

I've always liked to think that friendship is an incessant poem shared between two friends. You just expressed this wonderfully.

It seems like the most beautiful poetry results from some of the most mundane situations.

erin meagan said...

YOU ARE SUCH A GREAT WRITER.

Anonymous said...

Today in history class our teacher talked about that river and showed us the same picture you posted with it. I thought of this post and it made me smile.

-Sabrina

MigdalaVered said...

My best friend growing up was named Jess. It stopped.

I'm jealous of you for several reasons, that friendship being one of them.

At the same time, I'm glad I'm not you for other reasons...

The passage you linked from Looking for Alaska is one of my favourite passages from any book ever.

I hope to buy your books some day, and add lines from them to my "favourite passages" list.

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