Poem for Wednesday

Exsultate Jubilate
By Timothy Liu

fire in that square floodlit by crimson

gels left onstage a floating red silk

scarf that snaked around the nimblest calves

unable to outlast Mozart's legacy

or Pater's gemlike flame abandoned dream

erased by edicts of the blood the song

the space with both feet off the ground

if only for a moment elephantine

memory as the curtain falls full weight

the voice of Kathleen Battle amplified

fades away five years to the day and still

your body as it was caught between

Isadora and the wheel and not what it has

become a form that those who live must bear

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I knew it was going to be a bad news day following the Oscar nominations so I tried to avoid televisions, and then, in the evening when The State of the Moron was on, we watched Troy on some cable channel because Sean Bean, Orlando Bloom, Eric Bana and even Brad Pitt are a worthy distraction from Dubya. (I kind of like Brad Pitt. Don't think he can really act, but have enjoyed him since Thelma and Louise and never saw Meet Joe Black so can't hold it against him...okay, he did date Gwyneth Paltrow, but if I held that against Brad, I would have to hold Jack Nicholson against Anjelica Huston and it's just not worth it.)

Anyway, I keep putting off seeing Walk the Line and it is clear I need to stop doing that -- I am not even sure why, as I really like Joaquin and Reese and I mostly like Johnny Cash and June Carter. Any other year I would totally love for both of them to win, but it's really hard for me to root against Heath and I really like Felicity Huffman and it's also really hard for me to root against someone playing a transgendered character which it seems to me by definition must be more difficult than playing a singer, even one based on a real person. But since I haven't seen Transamerica either, I will not rant either way. I will only rant if Keira Knightley wins because I am not sure what she's doing with a nomination instead of Laura Linney! Oh, I guess I better see Munich too. It's not like Spielberg has ever really let me down, even when he's made me mad. Not counting Hook.

Anyway, having dutifully avoided all news but the obvious, I can't even manage to get my panties in a twist about the Alito non-filibuster. I was too disgusted ahead of time. The war was lost before this week and the Democrats knew it. Unless they dug up something like drugs or little boys in Alito's past, he was going to end up on the court later if not sooner, and if it hadn't been him, we'd just have gotten some other nightmare Bush appointment. The Democrats didn't do anything about Scalia when they had the chance and it is hard to imagine how Alito could possibly be worse than him. Maybe someone can tell me why I am feeling almost as annoyed with all the IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!!! bloggers as I am with Bush, Rove, Alito, Joe Lieberman, etc. It's starting to seem so ragingly obvious to me that those who can, do and those who can't, blog, which is fine in the case of someone like me who has no delusions of political efficacy, but for fuck's sake can't some of these self-important types come up with some kind of plan instead of just telling people what to be angry about all the time? We're smart enough to figure out the being angry and calling our Senators part ourselves!

Am very behind on comments and stuff from writing an awesome George Takei article and a not-awesome article in which Dave Mack disses fan fiction, like so many of the hacks writing that unbearable stuff Pocket publishes and I throw in a pile of things I can't get ten pages into. Had lovely Middle Eastern lunch with ...food being the only Middle Eastern issue I can bear to talk about at present (oh yeah, per my post of the other day, feel free to leave comments disagreeing with whatever, though don't be surprised if I ignore them entirely at present and for fuck's sake do NOT expect me to discuss Israel if you make it apparent that you don't know the first thing about the British Mandate, the UN vote, the 1948 war, the Six Day War or how the occupied territories came to be occupied and from whom, not to mention the history of the phrase "Palestinian people," before you start talking at me in absolutes about what Jews must or must not do or say). Um. Yeah, even ignoring the news I can get this upset. Anyway, gave me a duck. I was going to post a picture of it, but I forgot to take one and I am too tired now; instead I will post this:


Pig-nose turtle in the Australia exhibit at the National Aquarium in Baltimore last weekend.


It lives in a tank with lungfish and other amazing creatures.

Why am I cranky? Oh yeah. Remember I had that mole on my back removed and it was pretty benign but dysplastic or some such a couple of months ago? I now have an infection in the incision site, which appeared to have healed, that has gotten steadily worse, oozed pus, made me itch like anything and is now too scary looking to ignore. So I have to get up very early to go to the dermatologist and hope it's just something stupid like one of the stitches tore and got stuck under the skin or something. Did I mention that it itches and looks really scary?