Loose Leaf Notes

I had planned to interview my friend, Mara, sometime during the two day poetry symposium we attended recently. I knew I’d be blogging about it, and if she won for her either of the two presentations she was scheduled to give, I’d be writing a story for The Floyd Press. I thought maybe I’d ask her some questions over a Scrabble game, but the game never even made it out of my car. She was distracted with her upcoming presentations, and with four of us staying in one inn suite, we were busy having fun, reading each other our poetry, eating, and talking about poets Claudia Emerson and Bruce Weigl, who were guest readers at the event.

As Mara was dressing for the first event, putting on her signature khaki cargo pants, she talked about needing to be comfortable and how her cargo pants helped her feel like herself. She showed off the necklace she was planning to wear the next day with a carnelian shirt that would top of her second pair of khaki cargo pants. “I won’t weigh the pockets down with stuff,” she said about her pants. “I think they’ll look neater that way.”

I saw my opportunity, opened my notebook in an “all about it” official manner, and began to conduct the interview:

Colleen: “Mara, how many pairs of cargo pants to you own?”

After thinking about it and discussing the fact that some fit and some don’t, she answered, “Approximately nine in different sizes.”

Colleen: (Thinking fast for my follow-up question), “And how many of those are written on?”

Mara: “Three.”

Colleen: “What about cargo shorts?”

Mara: “Ah … about half-a-dozen.”

Colleen: “Are they all khaki?”

Mara: “No, some are olive green. I like fatigue cargoes, but never ever wear camouflage.”

Post note: To see a ritual performance of the signing of Mara’s pants, go HERE. Shorts are HERE. You can read about Mara's symposium win HERE. You can see the cargo pants she wore for her symposium win in the last shot.