By Paul Muldoon
I.
I gave you back my claim on the mining town
and the rich vein we once worked,
the tumble down
from a sluice box that irked
you so much, the narrow gauge
that opened up to one and all
when it ran out at the landing stage
beyond the falls.
I gave you back oak ties,
bully flitches, the hand-hewn crossbeams
from which hung hardtack
in a burlap bag that, I'd surmise,
had burst its seams
the last night we lay by the old spur track.
II.
You gave me back your frown
and the most recent responsibility you'd shirked
along with something of your renown
for having jumped from a cage just before it jerked
to a standstill, your wild rampage
shot through with silver falderals,
the speed of that falling cage
and the staidness of our canyon walls.
You gave me back lake skies,
pulley glitches, gully pitches, the reflected gleams
of two tin plates and mugs in the shack,
the echoes of love sighs
and love screams
--------
Did some work, sorted some papers, folded some laundry, had a pretty typical Monday, other than being made to feel self-conscious about blogging by two people who should know better (one doesn't think I should talk about doing chores, which, considering she has a housekeeper, is certainly more chores than she'd otherwise think about, another who thinks I should have a better job, though she hasn't worked in years since her spouse makes lots of money). And I'm thinking of defriending everyone at Dreamwidth and InsaneJournal who crossposts to LiveJournal, because I am sick of people defriending me on LiveJournal to try to make me read them on Dreamwidth or InsaneJournal, when I still have ten times as many people on my friends list on LiveJournal and most days I just don't have time to check Dreamwidth and InsaneJournal too. Nearly everyone I know is still crossposting rather than leaving LiveJournal, which leads me to believe that convenience is more important to those people than whatever privacy or business issues they have with LiveJournal, so why do I keep having to beg people to let me keep reading where it's convenient for me?
Evening was nice, at least. Watched Good Will Hunting, which I don't think I'd ever seen all the way through before -- I remembered certain parts, but other parts I was sure I'd never seen. I wasn't particularly a Matt Damon fan until relatively late in the game (people always told me Paul and Daniel looked like him, which I thought was funny because I didn't think he was all that hot when he was younger -- physically, Ben Affleck was more my type), but he's really excellent in that film; I know Robin Williams won the Oscar, and he's quite good, but Damon is the one whose performance is really unforgettable. Plus Jupiter is in opposition and you can see the four largest moons very easily with binoculars, so we went out and played Galileo for a while in the most magnificent weather we've had in months. And son insisted that we watch some Monty Python, which included "Albatross" (the live version is on the disc extras too), so that is always a mood-lifter.
This is the rat catcher and his (adorable) rat at the Colonial Fair at Mount Vernon on Sunday.
Ship's Company played music near the hay bales where people were eating...
...and reenactors worked on clothing and blankets for the militia.
There were kettles over open fires near the encampment beside the marketplace...
...while the soldiers themselves demonstrated rifle formations by the mansion.
Some of this beautiful glass commemorates Jamestown and Yorktown.
Otto the Sword Swallower demonstrated that he was knit together differently from others.
And there were colonial dancing lessons!
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