Thursday, September 19, 2013

Poem for Thursday and Petco Mice

Moon Festival
By Bei Dao
Translated by Eliot Weinberger and Iona Man-Cheong

Lovers holding pits in their mouths
make vows and delight in each other
till the underwater infant
periscopes his parents
and is born

an uninvited guest knocks at my
door, determined to go deep
into the interior of things

the trees applaud

wait a minute, the full moon
and this plan are making me nervous
my hand fluttering
over the obscure implications of the letter
let me sit in the dark
a while longer, like
sitting on a friend's heart

the city a burning deck
on the frozen sea
can it be saved? it must be saved
the faucet drip-drop drip-drop
mourns the reservoir

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I did not get much work done on Wednesday. I hate having a cold -- I know people who are dealing with much worse health issues, so I don't want to complain, but my hearing is off, I get dizzy if I stand up too quickly because my ears are clogged, and my sinuses are killing me. I feel best when I'm moving around, so I took a long walk and saw bunnies and deer, but then I ended up exhausted afterward. I just want my energy back so I can do stuff for my family and friends.

We went out to dinner with our neighbors -- Adam's friend Daniel and his parents -- which was the highlight of my day; we had Tara Thai (yay spicy food) and stopped at a Chinese grocery to get moon cakes for the festival tomorrow (it will be an interesting combination of Sukkot, the lunar festival, and Talk Like a Pirate Day). Then we watched Broadchurch, which is not low-stress. Here are a few quick photos of mice, hamsters, and other rodents at Petco:















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