{"id":885,"date":"2011-06-23T10:39:50","date_gmt":"2011-06-23T14:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/wpblog\/?p=885"},"modified":"2012-07-15T20:12:33","modified_gmt":"2012-07-16T00:12:33","slug":"all-of-my-things-by-j-anthony-roman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/all-of-my-things-by-j-anthony-roman\/","title":{"rendered":"“All of My Things” by J. Anthony Roman"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Every pleasure I had in life I have to reclaim, because now, there is nothing that is just mine.<\/p>\n

A Christmas mural appeared on your window in December, a heart in February, and flowers in March. You wanted to show the block how happy you were about being here. You were making your presence known; I\u2019m bright, and I\u2019m creative, love me.<\/p>\n

But sweety, sometimes people don\u2019t want to hear it. Sometimes seeing your happiness pisses people off. Sometimes seeing you enjoy yourself only makes the observer whose going through hell feel that much worst. And you are surprised as sin when people don\u2019t smile back at you.<\/p>\n

But I do, because to me, your enthusiasm is attractive. I liked the look in your big orange eyes, the way it matches your smile and the shape of your head, the fall of your hair.<\/p>\n

But…some guy beats me to your heart; he matches your enthusiasm in life. He wakes up as early as you do. You two are never apart. You love his friends, they\u2019re so funny.<\/p>\n

The books he reads, the films he watches, everything matches your expectations.<\/p>\n

Come time to celebrate your birthday, he doesn\u2019t want to meet your parents. But you\u2019ve been together for months? He\u2019s not comfortable \u201cbeing sized up as a potential mate for offspring, it\u2019s primal\u201d he says. And you don\u2019t like that. A distance begins to form and he makes no effort to bridge that gap, he doesn\u2019t even send in surveyors. You suggest a break and it\u2019s not more than 15 minutes before he\u2019s out the door.<\/p>\n

Now 4th of July comes around and I don\u2019t see the stars and stripes mural on your window. He was the bad guy, yet you\u2019re the one who gets bitter. You mope around the block and never put on your rollerblades anymore. No eyes, no smile. Just another hot transplant, hollow, disappointed and walking aimlessly around the streets of New York. Someone had fucked with my alchemy, and ruined my happy muralist.<\/p>\n

I come to the rescue. Simple flowers present a slight rise in mood. Day trips bring back the bright character. Orange eyes lighten over dinner. You\u2019re getting everything you want again, but I don\u2019t see you as happy as you were. I try harder, you meet my family and I yours. I make you a part of every aspect of my life.<\/p>\n

Everything I\u2019ve done, I\u2019ve relive with you. I make you apart of all of my things. My friends are dating your friends, and you are a superpower in my world.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re almost perfect again but there\u2019s something not quite right, and whatever that one thing is makes you a different person than who I wanted to save.<\/p>\n

One day after you leave from spending a week over my house, I find a camera right under the bed. I turn it on and it is several pictures of your ex boyfriend. His friends, his new girlfriend. His camera.<\/p>\n

I reignited your spark, and you used it to attract the wind that blew it out in the first place? I want all my things back. You don\u2019t give me an argument, and you\u2019re upset, good. You\u2019ll be sorry you did this because I really loved you.<\/p>\n

When I get my things back, your smell is everywhere. I can\u2019t remember how any of this stuff used to be like before you. My eighth grade trip to Rockefeller center looks like your pink Victoria secret thong. My wrist surgery, looks like that time we went to emergency because you bruised your hip. Walking around Battery Park after graduation looks exactly like being there with you on our 2nd date. And I can\u2019t get anything away from each other.<\/p>\n

Nothing is just mine anymore. From Bel Biv Devoe to Brewster and Shipley. From the reverse cowgirl to candy apples. From Tompkins\u2019s square park to my own mother. These things are all stuck together with you. I take everything and place it back in the bag and leave it outside your door to please, take everything back. I\u2019ll need all new things now.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About the Author:<\/em><\/p>\n

As a playwright, in 2004, J. Anthony Roman won the Best Play award at the first\u00a08 Minute Madness Festival<\/em> for Turtle Shell Productions. Anthony had a sold out run of his writer’s showcase\u00a0No Matinees, <\/em>which featured a collection of his short plays,\u00a0 <\/em>at Center Stage, NY in June of 2008.\u00a0His play,Blackouts,<\/em> had a full run in October 2009.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0His one person play\u00a0Perv<\/em> went up this past April as a co-production from the Overturn Theater Esemble and The Nuyorican Poet’s Caf\u00e9. He has read his fiction anywhere they will allow him to in\u00a0 New York City. He can be seen reading frequently at Open Anything, and INTAR Monday Saloon. Visit\u00a0www.janthonyroman.com<\/span><\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every pleasure I had in life I have to reclaim, because now, there is nothing that is just mine. A Christmas mural appeared on your window in December, a heart in February, and flowers in March. You wanted to show the block how happy you were about being here. You were making your presence known; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,200,219],"tags":[141,140,139],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=885"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3286,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885\/revisions\/3286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}