Poem for Friday

From Fathers in the Snow
By Jill Bialosky

2.

After father died
the love was all through the house
untamed and sometimes violent.
When the dates came we went up to our rooms
and mother entertained.
Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night,"
the smell of Chanel No.5 in her hair and the laughter.
We sat crouched at the top of the stairs.
In the morning we found mother asleep on the couch
her hair messed, and the smell
of stale liquor in the room.
We knelt on the floor before her,
one by one touched our fingers
over the red flush in her face.
The chipped sunlight through the shutters.
It was a dark continent
we and mother shared;
it was sweet and lonesome,
the wake men left in our house.

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I have some awesome fic to pimp by wonderful people who wrote it just for me! and I had agreed that there needed to be snogging-in-the-library fic, so she wrote "Up to No Good" (Lupin/Snape, R), and my ficathon writer, , wrote "Changes", involving my three favorite marauders and a great many of my kinks (Remus/Sirius/James, NC17). Also, my own ficathon recipient, , wrote "A Pain Called Dog" (Remus/Sirius, NC17) which is not for me but I am being proprietary since it's one of my pairings and besides, she and I are getting married. *g*

Had a quiet day to make sure I recovered thoroughly from yesterday -- other than afternoon carpools, it was an easygoing Thursday, since did not have to be in early like he usually does so he got older son off to school without waking me (bus leaves from a nearby elementary school at 6:30 -- this is the disadvantage of a magnet program). I had to listen to an hour-long interview with Dominic Keating and Anthony Montgomery for TrekToday so I could transcribe parts of it, and it was great fun (article here but it's really worth downloading the mp3 at TheFandom.com and listening (I left out the cursing, and Keating's enthusiastic legend about how he got the part after he met Rick and Brannon in a gay bar, heh).

My son and I went early to Hebrew school to talk to the principal, who said that he could let my son stay with the Judaic Studies teacher he has now if he switches to the Tuesday class, but he wanted to warn us that that class has a number of kids with serious behavior problems. He actually thought my son might be a good influence -- he's an excellent Hebrew student -- but he was worried that it wouldn't be at the level of the class he's in now. My son did not care, as he wants to keep the teacher very badly, and since there are only six more Sundays in the Hebrew school year that aren't field trips or group center days and Judaic Studies is only one hour, he figured it would not be that disruptive. So my son can do the math team, and we are all happy.

Tonight I watched the second episode of Highlander and now I have to ask: do most immortals not know their real parents? Is this an ongoing theme? How very hero archetype and what interesting possibilities that raises. We also watched the season one finale because my husband wanted to see Roger Daltrey on the show. I am slowly converting all the men in my house to Highlander love -- go me!


The thick, wet snow formed gorgeous clumps on branches shortly after sunrise on Tuesday. By noon it had all melted away.


The view not long after sunrise -- foreground too dark, I know, but the sky itself is beautiful.


Here it is with the sun on it, clinging heavily to branches in the back.


Here's one of those photo dilemmas. This was actually taken with flash and the camera's built-in snow setting, but the incredible brightness of the sky behind still lights the background more than the foreground. Is there a way to compensate for that?


This was the view out my front windshield while stopping at the stop sign you can see at right when I drove my son to school. (No, I don't usually take photos while driving the van. This was extraordinary circumstances. *g*)


Later in the day, icicles and trees with far less fluffy branches.

Hey, I need a big favor from a Canadian. My friend Therese Shechter directed a movie called I Was A Teenage Feminist, which features some of our mutual friends from Chicago, which is going to be on the W Network in Canada next Tuesday, March 8th, at 8 p.m. for International Women's Day. Is there anyone who can videotape or better yet TiVo and burn it for me, by any chance? Will pay postage or trade whatever I can get down here that you can't get up there! (You can find out more about the documentary at Trixie Films.)

Am going to crash early so I do not experience the repeat of the migraine tomorrow -- haven't checked flist, hope I haven't missed anything important. I am trying so hard to avoid wank!