Sunday, December 29, 2019

Poem for Sunday, Potomac Overlook Park, Chanukah

Poem for the New Year
By Devin Johnston

I've tracked myself from day to day
how many steps through a field of snow
how many hours have I slept
what have I eaten
what did I burn
calories or cigarettes
what birds have poured
through Bellefontaine
where mausoleums bear the names
of Busch and Brown
Lemp and Spink
on marble white as winter endive
when I can read my title clear
to mansions in the skies
what have I read
how many words
what facts
statistics biometrics
what data aggregation
what news
of wins and losses
getting and spending
each dawn a color wheel
to gauge the shifting moods
the daylight sunk in trees
an index of attraction

According to the Tao Te Ching
each day brings more
and more of less
less and still less
with no end to nothing
and nothing left undone

Even here in Bellefontaine
along a winding street
silence brings an interval
of yet more distant sound
trucks along the interstate
a plane behind the clouds  

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Adam came back early from his movie marathon to shower and change, then we drove him into the city to meet Katherine's family at the Kennedy Center to see My Fair Lady. We had thought about visiting art museums with Daniel while we were downtown, but it was over 60 degrees and we decided we wanted to enjoy the weather before the forecast rain on Sunday, so instead we went to Potomac Overlook Park, which has hiking trails and a nature center (and a bandstand where we've seen concerts, though not at this time of year).

My parents had invited Katherine's family to come for dinner and to celebrate Chanukah, so we went to their house in the evening and met up with Adam, Katherine, her parents, brother and sister, and a cousin. We ate a lot, played some dreidel, exchanged some gifts, and caught up on various local and global events, including the LSU-Oklahoma game. When we came home, we watched the end of the Clemson-Ohio State game, and as much as I don't like having to root for the latter as the Big 10 champion, I don't like unfair calls against them even more!

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