Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1488...

There was one day, in the mid-spring of 2008, which for me has symbolic value, both as a talisman and a pivot-point. I have spoken in-depth, in other places, about the strangeness of 2008 as a year and a gestalt entity for me and my kith and kin; this was perhaps the strangest day of that year. Because the day's shenanigans involve a number of my compatriots at once, in different ways and in bizarre formations, the 2017 sonnet addressing the day's events (to be eventually included in the book Something Solid) is illustrative, and can be illuminating for those with an interest in our affairs and snafus. Yet, the heftiest residue left by the day, which was slightly chilly and overcast, as I recall, is hewn into Apparition Poem #1488, which appeared in Upstairs at Duroc (see attached jpeg) and The Seattle Star. Julia has not been formally introduced into our Blogger universe yet, but she will be; and 1488 is both for and about my relationship with Julia. I found Julia haunting instantly, both because her assured sense of literature and books was stunning (she began as my student at Temple, in a Renaissance Lit survey course), and because she herself was a kind of walking Gothic mansion, not to mention fashionista (she worked at the South Moon Under boutique on Chestnut Street). Julia grew up in Cheltenham, as I did, and went to CHS, and graduated ten years after I did. I expected another marriage, and didn't get one. The severance package was nasty, too; yet Julia was deeply human, even when what was deeply human in her was hiding. If I remember correctly, 1488 was written in December '09; and, this time, most assuredly from Logan Square, at Flat #2. Julia did briefly colonize Flat #1.