By Allen Grossman
The hallucination of good weather
Can deceive only the young. Others
It maddens, when hair becomes
A crop of crocuses and terrible forsythia
Forks from fragile fingers. To be dead
Is easy and passes into habit,
But to live
Surpasses understanding. The outraged
Senses mourn when flesh unfolds
Like an unreachable conception
Suddenly achieved.
Wrapped in a stinking skin I lay all night
Rehearsing lies, until at dawn he crawled out
Blinking the bright windows of his eyes,
Foul, impotent, sinewy, and old.
I gripped him savagely, and he became
Bright water flowing to the sea:
Then a cold serpent, then a flowering tree.
At last he was a glorious woman. With a knife
I came upon the order of my life.
Conceive a coast shuddering and sublime,
And then a ship utterly cast away,
Its people poured like pollen on the waters—
Think then of rocks gigantic
And the unwatered deserts of the deep they guard,
And marvel how I came ashore
(Being neither wholly god nor wholly man)
My knotted beard wrapped around me like the veil
That Ino gave to one who could not love Calypso
Wholly beautiful. And know from this
That in the infinite patience of Poseidon
All our impatient imaginings
Are sealed at least,
As by an unimagined consummation.
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After being rudely dragged out of bed by the gas company, which decided it needed to check our meter TODAY even though we had an appointment for a couple of weeks from now, I mostly spent my day taking things out of bags, cleaning, sorting, putting things back into different bags, and transferring things between one computer and the other, with breaks to take the kids places. We went to Bagel City for lunch because we had neither bagels nor lox spread and were missing both. Then I took the kids to the pool, along with Adam's best friend, and went to work updating Picasa and burning photos to disc (and burning Doctor Who's "The Invasion" arc, while I was feeling industrious, since we all liked "The Mind Robber" so much). Also, I spent a lot of time with a cat kneading my thighs and demanding attention. I suppose I will get back into her good graces just in time to leave for the beach!
The Dolphin Discovery show at SeaWorld in San Diego.
As part of the same exhibition, a woman rides on a pilot whale.
SeaWorld's most famous star, Shamu, peforms a mid-air twist in his show Believe...
...and glides onto a platform with one of the trainers on his back.
At the Pets Rule show, adopted dogs, cats, birds, rodents and a pig demonstrate tricks and cooperation.
Sea Lions Tonite parodies all of the park's other shows, with sea lions playing the dolphins...
...a walrus playing Shamu...
...and ...even a sea lion parodying its own rescue show!
Paul made bacon cheeseburgers for dinner while I was out chatting with Adam's best friend's mother, then Paul made cookies because apparently he's missed baking or something that never happens to me. *g* After the kids' showers, we all watched Robot Chicken which makes me laugh far more than it should, even though they say "douchebag" far more often than I can forgive. I mean, the mythical animals missing Noah's Ark! And the CHiPs guys getting beheaded in a race! ...yes, I am twelve. Our other evening excitement was a little tiny adorable mouse on the deck that got Daisy very distressed, which alerted us!
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