My title? Yeah, I know - a little awkward, but my point is that I'm on the hunt for a pair of gold hoop earrings. In terms of earrings, I'm pretty boring. It's either gold or silver hoops or the occasional jazzy set of amber earrings or thrift store finds. And I don't live much of a raucous lifestyle, but apparently my earrings think I do because they get lost or broken with great frequency.
So I'm hoop shopping on etsy for the first time. I've narrowed it down to the five sets of earrings below. Yes, they do seem to be very, very similar, but (to me) there is a world of difference between each of them (size, texture, price) so either humor me and put your two cents in - I'd love some input!
At gate C22 in the Portland airport
a man in a broad-band leather hat kissed
a woman arriving from Orange County.
They kissed and kissed and kissed. Long after
the other passengers clicked the handles of their carry-ons
and wheeled briskly toward short-term parking,
the couple stood there, arms wrapped around each other
like he'd just staggered off the boat at Ellis Island,
like she'd been released at last from ICU, snapped
out of a coma, survived bone cancer, made it down
from Annapurna in only the clothes she was wearing.
Neither of them was young. His beard was gray.
She carried a few extra pounds you could imagine
her saying she had to lose. But they kissed lavish
kisses like the ocean in the early morning,
the way it gathers and swells, sucking
each rock under, swallowing it
again and again. We were all watching--
passengers waiting for the delayed flight
to San Jose, the stewardesses, the pilots,
the aproned woman icing Cinnabons, the man selling
sunglasses. We couldn't look away. We could
taste the kisses crushed in our mouths.
But the best part was his face. When he drew back
and looked at her, his smile soft with wonder, almost
as though he were a mother still open from giving birth,
as your mother must have looked at you, no matter
what happened after--if she beat you or left you or
you're lonely now--you once lay there, the vernix
not yet wiped off, and someone gazed at you
as if you were the first sunrise seen from the Earth.
The whole wing of the airport hushed,
all of us trying to slip into that woman's middle-aged body,
her plaid Bermuda shorts, sleeveless blouse, glasses,
little gold hoop earrings, tilting our heads up.
So I'm hoop shopping on etsy for the first time. I've narrowed it down to the five sets of earrings below. Yes, they do seem to be very, very similar, but (to me) there is a world of difference between each of them (size, texture, price) so either humor me and put your two cents in - I'd love some input!
(And just to make this purchase a bit poetic - a lovely poem - with gold hoops.)
"Gate C22"
by Ellen Bass
At gate C22 in the Portland airport
a man in a broad-band leather hat kissed
a woman arriving from Orange County.
They kissed and kissed and kissed. Long after
the other passengers clicked the handles of their carry-ons
and wheeled briskly toward short-term parking,
the couple stood there, arms wrapped around each other
like he'd just staggered off the boat at Ellis Island,
like she'd been released at last from ICU, snapped
out of a coma, survived bone cancer, made it down
from Annapurna in only the clothes she was wearing.
Neither of them was young. His beard was gray.
She carried a few extra pounds you could imagine
her saying she had to lose. But they kissed lavish
kisses like the ocean in the early morning,
the way it gathers and swells, sucking
each rock under, swallowing it
again and again. We were all watching--
passengers waiting for the delayed flight
to San Jose, the stewardesses, the pilots,
the aproned woman icing Cinnabons, the man selling
sunglasses. We couldn't look away. We could
taste the kisses crushed in our mouths.
But the best part was his face. When he drew back
and looked at her, his smile soft with wonder, almost
as though he were a mother still open from giving birth,
as your mother must have looked at you, no matter
what happened after--if she beat you or left you or
you're lonely now--you once lay there, the vernix
not yet wiped off, and someone gazed at you
as if you were the first sunrise seen from the Earth.
The whole wing of the airport hushed,
all of us trying to slip into that woman's middle-aged body,
her plaid Bermuda shorts, sleeveless blouse, glasses,
little gold hoop earrings, tilting our heads up.
"14k Gold Hoop earrings" by FirebirdJewellery
"Classic 14k Gold Fill Hoops" by Christinapdesigns
"Just Right Gold Hoops" by FusedNTwisted
"LARGE and skinny 1.5 inch 14K gold filled forged hoop earrings" by muyinmolly
"Hammered Satin Gold Hoops - Medium" (but I like the large too!) by CocoBijou
image of hoola hooping ladies via fashion necking
