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One of the first things my boyfriend, Indigo, did after we started dating six months ago was give me the Maus books to read. There isn’t a lot I could say about these that hasn’t already been said more eloquently, so I won’t try to say a lot. But what especially amazed me when I got to the second volume was the way that the artist’s own story of having worked on the first volume had now woven its way into the second’s story. “And normally all the self-referential nonsense would have really bothered me,” a blogger who could have been me writes, “but that is the beauty of Maus. The self-referential stuff is what keeps it honest and grounded. It is what keeps it from becoming another Holocaust survival story and makes it into something much, much larger. It is what makes it so amazing.” Honest and grounded is all I’m ever trying for as an artist, and reading and loving these books has helped me figure out that maybe self-conscious, self-referential writing can serve that purpose instead of getting in its way. But anyway, here’s what I’ve been working on for the last six months.

No, don’t get up
I just need a pen before I lose this line
I left my notebook at home again
This happens every time
I gotta wake up and write this down
This ought to make a good start:
“Maybe we can’t stay together,
but it’s not enough to keep us apart”

Six a.m.
My flight gets in
Of course I’m still awake
I went through all of my paper when
The sleeping pills didn’t take
Stretch, like a bass string, from the inside
Learn as I go along
Maybe we’re both out of practice,
but I’m working on a new song

No, don’t get up
I just need a rhyme for ’self-referentially’
I know my timing is terrible –
so, what time should we meet?
Not like I ever understood what the use is
of giving up before we start
You’re pretty good with excuses,
but it’s not enough to keep us apart