Hotel California: The Album in Summary

Hotel California: The Album in Summary

A Poem by Brigid Cooley

Track 1. Hotel California: You know how sometimes you get in your car to drive somewhere, but your mind is on overdrive so you aren't even thinking about where you're going, and then the next thing you know, you're parked outside of your ex boyfriend's childhood home, even though he's away at college in another town and you haven't spoken in months, but you still want to be close to him? 

Track 2. New Kid in Town: He says this is his favorite song on the album. It took me a while to understand why.

Track 3. Life in the Fast Lane: The reason why I don't do drugs.

Track 4. Wasted Time: I once listened to this song 32 times in a row. It hurt just as bad each time.

Track 5. Wasted Time Reprise: Just because you tell other people you've gotten over it doesn't always mean that you have.

Track 6. Victim of Love: Not long ago, I played Vera Claythorne in a stage production of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. I listened to this song every night before the start of the show. It turns out that Vera and I have a lot in common.

Track 7. Pretty Maids All in a Row: How old were you when you realized? I was 5. I walked in on my parents wrapping Christmas presents; the ones that were supposed to be from Santa.

Track 8. Try and Love Again: What I've been trying to do for years, but every time I think I have been successful, I end up listening to Track 4, 32 times in a row, and each time it hurts just as bad.

Track 9. The Last Resort: My dad says that anyone who calls themselves a Christian should listen to this song at least once. So, I do every Sunday to remind myself to walk with compassion and to appreciate what is already here.

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Reminder #7

Reminder #7

A Poem by Brigid Cooley

Please don't forget just how fond she is of laughter.

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Looking Backː The Things That Remind Me of You

Looking Backː The Things That Remind Me of You

A Poem by Brigid Cooley

1. The Chinese food place close to my house. I will occasionally flip it the bird when I drive past it.

2.Poetry. This one is harder to deal with considering how important it is to me.

3. I once called you a walking thesaurus and you responded with a list of words synonymous to laughter.

4. Pooping. I won't get into that one.

5. Brioche French toast.

6. The wrappers found on disposable straws. We crumpled them up and shot them at each other for hours. It was one of the best evenings of my life.

7. J. R. Tolkien. He is still boring, despite your many efforts to make him sound brilliant.

8. The kiss that rests in the right hand corner of my mouth; the type of kiss that can move mountains and end wars. I still have not given mine away.

9. The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost; also, The Road to El Dorado, the Dreamworks film.

10. Pride. We've both got a lot of that.

11. Forcing myself to be angry so that I don't feel broken instead.

12. The naive poems I wrote; the ones that were once my favorite but that I now avoid.

13. The words I regret not saying; the words you will never say; the phone call I wish we could have, but that I am too afraid to initiate; trying to move on.

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Something I've Been Thinking About

"We accept the love we think we deserve." -Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Something I've Been Thinking About

A Poem by Brigid Cooley

When I was 12, my best friend lost her virginity in a bathroom stall, to a boy who didn't know what he was doing and didn't care about her at all.

When she told me the story, there were tears streaming down her face; she apologized and asked me if I thought her stomach looked swollen.

I am not sure if she ever told her mom.

I once walked in on her scraping at the skin on her wrists as though it was the winter and time to shed; time to start anew.

That is the summer she started wearing rubber bands in the pool; one day she asked me if I believed that girls like her deserved love like the movies.

I told her, "Girls like you deserve so much more."

Those were the days when I learned to be wary of boys with beautiful eyes and flattering words.

That is when I decided that me, I'd hold out for Love, and if he never came, at least I would be happy knowing that my stomach wasn't swollen; maybe I wouldn't apologize each time I cried.

It's been years now.

I have mastered the art of crying in public without anyone knowing; it's during one on one encounters when I sometimes get caught.

He says that I am an observer and then wipes away my tears; I realize I've been holding onto them since I was little.

I wonder if my old best friend ever found a love like the movies.

I hope she knows that she deserves so much more.

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