By Estill Pollock
The cyclical nature of violence and time—
this is not taking place in the distant past,
always present.
A variety of puppets are used,
a rod and Bunraku, doll-like puppets originating
in Japanese theatre, double
double.
A shot fired broadside,
a salvo, stating Billy Joe Hobert,
Washington's starting quarterback,
received unsecured loans from a nuclear scientist,
thousands of dollars in cash from boosters,
money from prescription drugs, cocaine,
illegally altered cellular phones.
Scabby skulls look like rotten bark.
The phantom dagger before me, water mimes holding it up,
they name the witches Water, Wind, Fire, make them stage managers,
engineers. Tempters in slinky leather tunics
rising out of the fountain as the lights come up,
shape our perceptions, compelling gestures, devilish.
Yes, my coffee was still hot.
I'd slept but a moment, I could hear my wife on the phone
in the next room.
What you know, you know.
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It was a gorgeous, sunny Tuesday around 60 degrees, so since the kids are on spring break, Paul came home early and we went to Great Falls, where we saw a red-shouldered hawk, many turkey vultures, a snake, the first caterpillar of the season, geese pairing off for the spring, the passenger boat Charles F. Mercer off its blocks and ready to cruise down the canal, and the Potomac River much higher on its banks than the last time we saw it, making big foamy waves over the rocks. We also saw a helicopter going back and forth above the water, which along with the current upper river advisory telling boaters to stay out of the water between Cumberland and Little Falls made us wonder what the rafters in the water were doing there -- no wonder there were so many vultures!
A turkey vulture circles over the Potomac River...
...and flies past visitors to the Virginia side of Great Falls National Park.
These photos, however, were taken from the Maryland side.
Most of the turkey vultures were flying high above the treetops...
...as were a few pairs of geese crossing the river.
These geese were in the much more placid water of the C&O Canal.
Adam spotted the first caterpillar we've seen this spring...
...as well as this snake sunning itself on a rock above the river.
We had Punjabi choley and Karahi chicken for dinner, then watched two episodes of Torchwood, "Something Borrowed" and "From Out of the Rain" -- it is a mark of how much I adore this show that I forgave the former for a type of storyline that I usually loathe with a passion, and the latter reminded me of The X-Files in its heyday. I DESPISE unwanted-pregnancy-played-for-laughs -- this one started with a rape, even if it involved penetration of a part of Gwen's body other than her vagina, and then turned into the Star Trek episode where Deanna Troi gets pregnant and doesn't want to terminate the pregnancy but in Gwen's case it's because for some insane reason she thinks it will be less disruptive to her wedding to keep carrying the child in a situation where I personally would be screaming, "GET IT OUT OF ME NOW!"
And yet somehow the funny moments made me laugh anyway -- the in-laws snarking at each other, Gwen trying to explain to her father that it isn't Rhys's baby but she wasn't unfaithful even though we all know she was and it has to be insane guilt about Owen motivating this "must get married NOW" imperative, Rhys punching Jack for calling his mum an ugly bitch when Jack thinks the shapeshifter has taken the form of Rhys's mum, Ianto shopping for a new wedding dress for Gwen and being told by the salesman that they're quite used to men trying on wedding dresses for their "friends," Gwen asking Jack what he'll do while she's honeymooning and Jack saying, "The usual...pizza...Ianto..."
If I think about the storyline too much, I will get irritated the same way I always got irritated with X-Files when it let its misogyny creep through, so I am just going to say that I adored the characters in "Something Borrowed" without exception. Whereas "From Out of the Rain" is just plain creepy...Purple Rose of Cairo meets Carnivale with soul-sucking demons! And Jack blowing his head off for money -- now, that's the Jack I remember from his first appearances on Doctor Who! I like that they're remembering to use Owen's being dead, even though he seems to be living awfully well for a man who should be shedding skin cells and hair and looking horribly tattered by this point. Ah well, I'll let that go too, because I want Owen to stay around -- as Ianto says, I was taught to speak no evil of the dead even if they're still doing plenty of speaking for themselves!
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