By John Koethe
There were mice, and even
Smaller creatures holed up in the rafters.
One would raise its thumb, or frown,
And suddenly the clouds would part, and the whole
Fantastic contraption come tumbling down.
And the arcade of forgotten things
Closed in the winter, and the roller coaster
Stood empty as the visitors sped away
Down a highway that passed by an old warehouse
Full of boxes of spools and spoons.
I wonder if these small mythologies,
Whose only excuse for existing is to maintain us
In our miniscule way of life,
Might possibly be true? And even if they were,
Would it be right? Go find the moon
And seal it in the envelope of night.
The stars are like a distant dust
And what the giants left lies hidden in full view.
Brush your hair. Wipe the blood from your shoes.
Sit back and watch the firedance begin.
--So the rain falls in place,
The playground by the school is overrun with weeds
And we live our stories, filling up our lives
With souvenirs of the abandoned
Factory we have lingered in too long.
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Daniel is at his senior prom as I type this, and our timing for the afternoon was dependent on his schedule, so I didn't accomplish a lot besides getting to hang out with him and his girlfriend Shelley (whom he's been dating for nearly two years but we've only actually been introduced once). Apparently they are getting picked up and driven home by her sister, having decided not to go to the school's hyped-all-year After Prom event (to stop kids from drinking and having sex, not that that has ever fully worked), so we are at home listening to classical music and the rain. Earlier in the day we had to pick up the tuxedo (the white pocket square disappeared somehow, but no big loss). Then we all went out to pick up the corsage and stopped near a local pond where I'd seen baby geese earlier in the week, though they were hiding -- we did see a couple of adult geese and a mallard and wood duck, plus a red-winged blackbird and some songbirds.
Daniel and Shelley nearly didn't go to the prom because they didn't want to deal with all the insanity, and even though we offered to take them out somewhere for dinner or drop them off so they could go themselves, they wanted to have dinner here. So Paul made Swedish food, since she'd never had it, and toll house pie, and we chatted about colleges and comic books. Then they went off to the dance at the University of Maryland and the rest of us watched Doctor Who -- I know I am supposed to be all a-squee about this season and Matt Smith and celebrity guest stars and Neil Gaiman, but really all I liked this week was that the TARDIS turned into a Bellatrix Lestrange lookalike who says she stole the Doctor rather than the other way around, and I am really, really missing Eccleston, Tennant, Piper, Agyeman, and Tate. Here are a few prom night photos:
Here is a photo of what Daniel and Shelley are really like...reading comic books.
Shiny prom tickets.
Corsage and boutonniere as they looked when we went to pick them up (in this age of 1-800-FLOWERS, it is hard to find a local flower shop)...
...and being kept fresh from the florist in our refrigerator.
Adam took this photo of his brother and date...
...and I tried to get a good full shot, but they really did not want to be posing!
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