By Susan Wood
A parrot of irritation sits
on my shoulder, pecks
at my head, ruffling his feathers
in my ear. He repeats
everything I say, like a child
trying to irritate the parent.
Too much to do today: the dracena
that's outgrown its pot, a mountain
of bills to pay and nothing in the house
to eat. Too many clothes need washing
and the dog needs his shots.
It just goes on and on, I say
to myself, no one around, and catch
myself saying it, a ball hit so straight
to your glove you'd have to be
blind not to catch it. And of course
I hope it does go on and on
forever, the little pain,
the little pleasure, the sun
a blood orange in the sky, the sky
parrot blue and the day
unfolding like a bird slowly
spreading its wings, though I know,
saying it, that it won't.
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It was cooler but sunny on Thursday and my allergies were not pleased, though the air felt wonderful when I was outdoors -- it was the perfect day for walking in the woods (I've seen both deer and bunnies the past two days), and younger son and his friend found several tent caterpillars in among the inchworms and increasingly omnipresent stinkbugs. I had to take younger son to the Hebrew school to turn in the documents for his work permit, since he will be getting paid for the work he's previously done as a volunteer now that he has so many years of experience. I also dragged him into the mall with me to pick up the Mother's Day presents for both grandmothers that we had on order at Ritz Camera, and I made him wait while I stopped in Bath & Body Works -- of course I could not be so cruel as to drag him inside -- to get my last Thursday freebie, which in this case was a candle, a little bottle of lotion, and anti-bac.
The news around here is all about the epic loss in the region -- no, not Bin Laden, I'm talking about Gary Williams' retirement as the Maryland Terrapins' basketball coach. Paul made two-bean burritos for Cinco de Mayo dinner, which were yummy. We all watched Nikita, which continues to get more and more awesome as Alex gets more to do and Amanda gets more interesting (though Birkhoff had the best line of the night, speaking of Percy's black box: "Niki has his third Horcrux"). Then older son tried to convince us of the reasons he should build his next laptop instead of purchasing one, everyone compared notes on things we hate about our browsers, and I refused to watch the news once the sports blather was finished because House Republicans are making my blood pressure too high. Here are some photos from the Columbus Zoo with Lori a week ago:
Me covered in lorikeets. They were a bit intrigued by my hair and jewelry but mostly they wanted my cup of nectar.
There are several injured manatees in the aquarium at the zoo, which are utterly amazing.
The zoo has an enormous new polar bear enclosure with two sister bears.
This is an echidna, which is like a porcupine with an elephant snout.
There is a colony of flying foxes...
...and several types of monkeys, though I can't remember which these are, sadly.
This is the first Canada goose gosling we've seen this season!
And here I am again, in the reptile house petting a snake. I had my glasses off all day because they were so spotted from the rain.
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