“Close to Me” by Ashley Riley Melts Even My Cantankerous, Misanthropic Heart
I was just cruising around the internet, minding my own business, being the DUDE that I am (and I am a DUDE), when I stumbled upon this soul-melting hell-demon of a song. Instantly I found myself frozen in place, at once captivated by the song’s beauty and horrified by a tickling sensation in my heart.
Was that emotion that I felt? Emotion of the softer kind? Was it…longing, grief, and love?
Damn it, it was.
It was all those things and in great and terrible quantities.
Charles Bukowski, Poet King of Skid Row, wrote that “love is a dog from Hell.” I disagree with much of Buk’s worldview, but that part I always agreed with.
Bukowski was a cat man, though. For him, the hell-dog of love was all bad.
Me, I love dogs, so his statement is a little more nuanced in my unfortunately still-beating heart. I shall have to work harder to stamp all that is left of softer emotion, I suppose.
