jelly candy. limes with sugar

Happy Friday the 13th, my buttercreams!

diachrony and tkp, it's also Ron Perlman's birthday today!! YAY!! He's 57, can you believe it? OMG, I love him so much!!

It's a very pretty day here in SoCal and I am looking forward to spending the weekend in the park feeding baby food to unsuspecting participants. In other words, I'm in charge of games at a baby shower tomorrow for my BFF. I'm going to be a god mama ya'll! Can you believe it? Me neither.

I've accomplished very little today at work that didn't involve LJ, email and the baby shower, but hey, it's Friday after all. If I can't get my boss to agree, then I'm going to make a quick exit shortly.

Now your poem for today was written by Abel Meerpol under the pseudonym Lewis Allan. He later put it to music and it was performed mostly famously by Billie Holiday as the closing number of one of her dinner club acts. My favorite version is sung passionately by Nina Simone.

I find it haunting, tragic and very chilling.

Strange Fruit by Lewis Allan
Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves
Blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
The scent of magnolia sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
for the rain to gather
for the wind to suck
for the sun to rot
for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop