Poem for Monday and Quileute Exhibit

Directions for Lines that will Remain Unfinished
By Sarah Messer

Line to be sewn into a skirt hem
held in my mouth ever since the unraveling

Line beneath a bridge
for years without hope I stretched my arms into the river searching for you

Line to be sent to the cornfield
history is a hallway of leaves.

Line written for electric wires
your voice inside the no history, sitting still

Line for future people
inside the work, only my empty teeth

Line from Maharaj
Presently you are in quietude. Is it on this side of sleep or on the other side?

Line that cannot be read because of its darkness
impossible walk under weight of honey
away from your hands that break me in half

Line addressing President Lincoln
when the handle and blade are gone, what remains
of your axe?

Line to be run over by a lawn mower
afraid of everything and to be of no use.

Line for a distant midnight dog-pack
because I can never speak it

Line to be sewn into a shirt collar
the streak of your finger across the hood of the car

Line for a stone growing old
a sunburst that lands inside a flower

Line written only with your mouth
desire is a trick ghost

Line for the garden weeds
slowly I am nearer to you

Line describing the better qualities of monsters
are we afraid of what we wished for?

Three lines written for bears
inside cells, water, trees, I am meaningless
darkness and light wind like breath on fur
I carry the circling cities inside me

Line for a leaf blown into the hair of the Master
seeing you, I want no other life

Line for a mouse
to die like that, held in your hands

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The weather Sunday was gorgeous and Adam was tied up most of the day -- first working at Hebrew school, then striking the set of Legally Blonde at school -- so Paul and I went downtown. The rose garden and regional garden in the National Garden were open and we visited the last day of the Orchid Mystique exhibit in the conservatory of the US Botanic Garden, then we walked to the National Gallery of Art, thinking we were going to see the last day of the Ito Jakuchu exhibit of Japanese bird paintings. But there was an hour-plus wait just to get in, so instead we went to the exhibits of Picasso drawings and Castiglione drawings.

There were ducklings in the fountains outside the National Museum of the American Indian, though we were worried for a while because the mother duck got out and waddled all the way out to the pond with four of her babies in tow, not realizing that the other three hadn't been able to jump up out of the fountain and were swimming around peeping frantically for nearly twenty minutes before one of the lazy drakes flew over squawking and apparently chased her back to get the rest of her babies. Inside the museum we went to see the exhibit on the Quileute Nation, put together in response to the fact that they're portrayed as werewolves in Twilight based on a legend that the Quileute descend from wolf ancestors.


The National Museum of the American Indian has some replica props from the Twilight films...


...including Emily's shell and paddle necklaces, the dream catcher that Jacob gives Bella, and a drum that hangs on Emily's wall.


The exhibit also has hundred-year-old wolf headdresses for elite Wolf Society ceremonies...


...and children's artwork from 1907 of children playing at the ceremony.


This child's pencil illustration, also from the early 1900s, shows Wolf Society members in aprons with deer hoof rattles on their ankles and headdresses like the ones seen above.


This Volkswagen Beetle, named Vochol, was decorated by Huichol craftsmen from Mexico with millions of glass beads and fabric. It's on display till May 10th.


And here are the ducklings that live right outside the museum.

Adam came home for dinner and we watched Harry's Law -- quite political this week, a date rape case in which a woman drugged a man and a hazing case in which an entire band was being tried for one student's death -- then the second half of Birdsong, which was well-done but I didn't love, and the second episode of the new Upstairs Downstairs which is still very engaging though I don't like any of the characters as much as I liked Downton Abbey's at this stage. Cats are conspiring to make me sleepy, so that's all the news from here.