green like july

there is a mix cd i made nearly three years ago, it's called "green like july". i think it's pretty good, but then everyone thinks they have great taste in music. i gave it to a friend for her birthday, but in reality i was making it to listen to on a roadtrip up the coast to mendocino.

i rediscovered it the other night, flipping through a stack of CDRs and today i brought it along on another drive north. it was so great to hear it again, and not just because there was someone in the car who knows and loves almost all of the songs (thus proving that i really DO have great taste in music, obviously). it was a nice window on a former self.

i feel strangely softly nostalgic but i'm not sure why. it's not missing anything or anyone, or even any me. maybe it's just an awareness of time passing, such a blessing and a curse for us mere mortals.

I grow old... I grow old...
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me.

I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

--tse