Incantations

Tonight, I read to Lu while he was high over the phone. I like reading to my friends over the phone when they're high. The last time I read Ozick's Heir to the Glimmering World to Leon. Today I read Diaz's Drown, and Kincaid's Lucy, while Lu spoke about bravado and confidence, the sham of it. Reading out Lucy over the phone seemed so incantatory and perfect, that I decided to write my final paper on incantations and longing and the African-American and Middle Ages tradition of Conjure--and am probably going to tell my professor, Stephanie, about how I got the idea. I'm starting to realise that the work I do--no matter how cerebral or scholarly its final shape takes--rides on my friends, my life, my loves, my fears.