Poem for Saturday

If, Someday
By Sharon Olds

If, someday, we had to look back
and tell the best hours of our lives,
this was one -- moving my brow
and nose around, softly, in your armpit,
as if you were running a furred palm
over my face. The skin of my body
touching your body felt actively joyful,
sated yet sipping and eating. As you fell
asleep, your penis slowly caressed me,
as if you were licking me goodbye, and I lay
slack, weightless, my body floated
on fathomless happiness. When someone
knocked on the door, you didn't wake up,
and I didn't wake you, and when they knocked again
I did not rouse you, I felt sure that nothing
was wrong -- it was just a someone, calling,
outside heaven, and the noise of the outsideness laid a
seal on our insideness. There was just this bed,
just these two, and, passing this way
and that, from angle to angle of the room --
wall, ceiling, floor, bedpost -- the
curved sound-waves of their recent cries,
by now a billion, bright webs,
look back and see this.

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I had a pretty quiet Friday, which was much what I wanted. Spent the morning rearranging a bunch of stuff in the basement and trying to sort old magazines. Had lunch with , who brought me Lindt truffles for my birthday. Stopped in Target to pick up laundry detergent and found on sale three $2.50 cotton t-shirts and a $20 chenille sweater. Took Adam to the violin store to get his violin restrung before his concert next week, and bought him a Chin Chum because his new shoulder rest makes him uncomfortable. Had dinner again with my parents, who had offered to babysit but I was feeling kind of wiped out and we decided we'd rather just stay in tonight, eat Girl Scout Cookies and watch sci-fi.

I also wrote a quickie review of Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Reunion", not one of my favorites so I didn't have a great deal to say about it. And I went outside to see the gorgeous enormous full moon. Those of you who've been reading this journal for a while probably know that Paul often makes me cards, usually fannish in nature. I had a feeling I might get a Douglas Adams reference since I turned 42 this week, but I was extremely amused to find that Stargate: Atlantis was the theme of the illustration:







And here's a gratuitous family photo taken at my mom's on Thursday:


The Friday Five: This Week
1. What did you do on Monday? Mailed my holiday cards.
2. What did you do on Tuesday? Nothing worth reiterating.
3. What did you do on Wednesday? Went to a funeral.
4. What did you do on Thursday? Celebrated my birthday.
5. What are you going to do today? Watch Sci-Fi Friday.

Fannish 5: Name 5 characters who you think are great parents, or who would be great parents.
1. Sandra and Noah Bennet, Heroes
2. Governor Weatherby Swann, Pirates of the Caribbean
3. Dr. Beverly Crusher, Star Trek: The Next Generation
4. President Mackenzie Allen, Commander in Chief
5. Martha and Jonathan Kent, Smallville

I don't have a lot to say about SGA or Sanctuary...I really disliked the former, in large part because of how it ended. Spoilers: How typical that they write Jennifer as a helpless damsel in distress who can't make any effort to save herself besides wailing, "I'm not Neva!" And it's just dumb that we see Neva and Jennifer as they see themselves rather than as others see them, because when the two of them meet, I have a hell of a time remembering who's actually supposed to be whom and what the others are seeing. Plus I think it would be much more interesting to see Jewel Staite play a tough bitch, though at this point I really doubt that she has the range as an actress to pull it off...maybe, though, she's just not trying anymore. It really pisses me off that the writers dispatch Neva with a bullet, then have Rodney steal her idea for a date and Jennifer dig it. I can't believe fans call other fans misogynistic for hating Jennifer when her construction as a character is often just plain insulting to women on a show that used to have Elizabeth Weir and Sam Carter.

As for Sanctuary, I still don't think the show is very good but I always enjoy it. Spoilers: I laughed a lot at the "Midnight at the Oasis" thing from the beginning, where Will asked Helen if she watched the sun come up with the Beatles and she said, "Just one of them." (We can all see his mother-daughter sandwich fantasy.) And Jim Byrnes! I have never seen him in anything besides Highlander and I think a Dead Zone episode, so if he gets to be recurring I will be delighted. The monster fight storyline was done better on Torchwood, and Will's transformation was pretty ridiculous, so the plot itself didn't do a lot for me.