A Hand
By Jane Hirshfield
A hand is not four fingers and a thumb.
Nor is it palm and knuckles,
not ligaments or the fat's yellow pillow,
not tendons, star of the wristbone, meander of veins.
A hand is not the thick thatch of its lines
with their infinite dramas,
nor what it has written,
not on the page,
not on the ecstatic body.
Nor is the hand its meadows of holding, of shaping—
not sponge of rising yeast-bread,
not rotor pin's smoothness,
not ink.
The maple's green hands do not cup
the proliferant rain.
What empties itself falls into the place that is open.
A hand turned upward holds only a single, transparent question.
Unanswerable, humming like bees, it rises, swarms, departs.
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It was catch-up day. The laundry is all done though not all folded, there has been a massive amount of book rearranging and shelving both down the basement and in my bedroom, and I posted four articles at TrekToday...didn't write the book review (they didn't send me Ships of the Line, so that is hardly my fault anyway) but I did write about Mulgrew's new play, StarTrek.com's new survey and Shatner's new game show, video games and delusions of grandeur. I find it amusing that Kate is following Scott Bakula onstage in a Civil War-era production -- it's even set at Ford's Theatre, though the play is being performed in New York. And, having less-than-half-watched the game show, I find it amusing that when I see Shatner surrounded by go-go dancers I just snicker, whereas if it was just about anyone else I would be rolling my eyes in disgust.
Not much else of note happened except that I discovered I no longer remember algebra for solving for two variables (younger son's question was B-C=60, B/C=4, and although I figured out pretty quickly that it was B was 80 and C was 20, I could not explain how I'd gotten that and had to call my husband to walk us through the part where you add C to both sides of the equation and reduce the fraction and stuff). Older son was grumpy because he has a cankersore that is driving him nuts, plus he has been barred from computer games for the week because he "forgot" he had homework until 9 last night after playing his 20 minutes for the day. And both were annoyed because, even though they were not going to get to play it today anyway since younger son had Hebrew, neither Best Buy nor K-mart had the Happy Feet video game on the shelves yet when hubby went to pick it up in the afternoon.
Speaking of penguins,
Sadly, the result is probably true, though not for the reasons given. Stewardess, was it a dead body or a live young one? *g*
 Dear Santa...Dear Santa, This year I've been busy! Last Tuesday I gave change to a homeless guy (19 points). In October I ruled Canada as a cruel and heartless dictator (-700 points). Last Thursday I helped Overall, I've been naughty (-545 points). For Christmas I deserve a spanking! Sincerely, |
People in or near London: if you and your family were nautical geeks of sorts, and you only had one day in the area on your spring trip, would you go to the Maritime Museum in Greenwich even if you'd been there before to see the Nelson exhibit which you had not seen before, or to the Docklands Museum which you had never seen? (Assume you were already planning to tour the Golden Hinde, as you had toured the Cutty Sark last time you were there.)
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