Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Poem for Tuesday and Beetle Pics

The Wife-Woman
By Anne Spencer

Maker-of-Sevens in the scheme of things
From earth to star;
Thy cycle holds whatever is fate, and
Over the border the bar.
Though rank and fierce the mariner
Sailing the seven seas,
He prays as he holds his glass to his eyes,
Coaxing the Pleiades.

I cannot love them; and I feel your glad,
Chiding from the grave,
That my all was only worth at all, what
Joy to you it gave,
These seven links the Law compelled
For the human chain--
I cannot love them; and you, oh,
Seven-fold months in Flanders slain!

A jungle there, a cave here, bred six
And a million years.
Sure and strong, mate for mate, such
Love as culture fears;
I gave you clear the oil and wine;
You saved me your hob and hearth--
See how even life may be ere the
Sickle comes and leaves a swath.

But I can wait the seven of moons,
Or years I spare,
Hoarding the heart's plenty, nor spend
A drop, nor share--
So long but outlives a smile and
A silken gown;
Then gaily I reach up from my shroud,
And you, glory-clad, reach down.

--------

I was writing and doing laundry and stuff this morning until lunchtime, when my mother came to pick up Adam to go shopping (she has actually found someone in the family who likes to go look at clothes with her, heh). That was around the same time that the National Zoo announced that Rusty the Red Panda had gone missing from the enclosure where we saw the red pandas just a couple of weekends ago, and all of DC came to a screeching halt as everyone sat at computers refreshing the National Zoo Twitter feed, the fake National Zoo Red Panda Twitter feed, and various news sites until someone spotted Rusty in Adams Morgan and zookeepers showed up to recapture the poor guy.

After that kind of excitement, I could barely muster the energy to take a walk, eat dinner, and watch Tristan and Isolde, which has Henry Cavill and Mark Strong with long hair, plus Rufus Sewell not playing a villain for a change and lovely shots of Irish landscapes. Then we watched this week's Warehouse 13, in which Pete made references to Kryptonite, the impossibility of the Browns winning the Super Bowl in his lifetime, and the Philosopher's Stone being from Harry Potter, so it was a great geek episode. Now John Oliver is claiming that Jon Stewart isn't doing The Daily Show because he escaped from the National Zoo, so my day has come full circle.

Earlier this year Adam was taking photos of bugs in extreme close-up as part of a photo project. One afternoon while I was walking, I found a huge beetle and when a neighbor saw me trying to put it on a log so I could carry it home without its scary pincers grabbing me, she kindly loaned me a plastic container. Here are some photos of the beetle and of Adam taking photos of the beetle -- I started with the latter because I know from the cicada photos that some people really, really hate it when I post insects without a spoiler warning:












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