Poem for Friday

O This is Not Spring
By Kay Boyle

O this is not spring but in me
there is a murmuring of new things
This is the time of a dark winter in the heart
but in me are green traitors

The dead lie apart with their throats laid full with sorrow
And the blood of the living moves slow in the cold
there is no one
To play the street like a flute with me
For a return on the old footsteps

They say write to me how the snow falls this winter
and if the horse sets out well on the road
And if I answer
This year the blood cannot lie quiet
And the sun goes swift, swift through the hair

--------

Thanksgiving was relatively calm, or maybe it just seems that way to me because I started drinking red wine fifteen minutes after arriving at my parents' and so did my sister so we were totally mellow while our kids were screaming down the basement. (I had a grand total of half a glass, before anyone starts lecturing me, hee!) Said kids got along fairly well despite the fact that four of them were under ten, in-laws and parents were very friendly, sister's husband was in a chatty mood -- he can be very reclusive, particularly when my sister and father are fighting. Friday night sister and husband are staying in a hotel in Georgetown while their kids stay with my parents, so there can presumably be no family feuds then. *g* Dinner was excellent, though the food at my mother's house always is; the question is whether I will have indigestion before I start eating! Must insist that my in-laws attend every Thanksgiving dinner.

So am thankful for Thanksgiving to be thankful for, as opposed to last year when I was thinking about spending this year's Thanksgiving volunteering someplace purely as an excuse not to be with extended family (my father stormed out and declared he was going to see if he could go buy a turkey sandwich somewhere, and that was just the opening salvo). Also I am thankful for the gorgeous weather we had today, cold and a little overcast but no more snow, meaning that people around here could get around easily and my in-laws could get here from Pennsylvania.

And I am thankful to (whom I had better stop mentioning, as thinks I am having an affair with her, when we all know her list of admirers is far longer than just me, heh) for , which was just terribly necessary after all the snake-worshipping in which we indulged in the past week. I am not thankful that CBS has cancelled Threshold after its disastrous Tuesday night ratings (no official announcement but E!'s Kristin is rarely wrong) but on a scale of annoyances, this one is pretty lightweight. And I am thankful I managed to get half a laundry done and watch "The Alternative Factor" tonight after getting home so I do not have to spend all day Friday trying to get chores and work done when I also have family obligations. Hope everyone celebrating had a lovely Thanksgiving!


made this cookie cake for the kids. There was also pecan pie, ice cream mousse cake, a bunch of brownie-pastry type things, See's Candies and leftover German chocolate cake because the latter is my father in law's favorite. But apparently others had vetoed the pumpkin this year, so tomorrow we are having our own!