Poem for Friday

Alfonso Street
By Eugene Gloria

In Sariaya, Quezon Province, where
my father's people live, bananas and
mangoes in colored cellophane adorn
windowsills like gaudy evening wear.
In Botong's pastorals, a fluvial fiesta
litters Laguna de Bay with lighted
tiny boats like a fleet of candled hopefuls.

Elsewhere, a nervous boy measures his week
with good days and bad days like innocents
walking on pavements wary of cracks.
In Caracas, a swarm of bees attacks a boy.
His dog shields his body with its own.
The boy lives; the dog dies shortly after.

On Alfonso Street, a kid I knew,
is paraded on a wooden wagon
with a matronly woman at the lead.
My metal trucks with missing wheels,
he once coveted. Stateside toys in chipped
reds and blues I got secondhand
from the children of American GIs.
His cart with wooden wheels, and rings
round his eyes, are gray as metal spokes.
What good are busted trucks to him
whose brand name toys are always new?
Fiesta prince with a shuttlecock crown,
fellow heir of bad blood.

In the kingdom of children where
we conjure angels from rain, a boy's
will could spin and hitch the earth.
Here my wheel-less truck remains.
An ashen kid, gray and gilded
is trundled by his mom in evening wear.

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Have spent all evening working on a Stupid Thing so this will be a short entry. Not that much to report anyway; the highlight of my day was lunch with at the Corner Bakery nearest the baby geese, which we went to see. (They are still adorable.) Stopped at Target to get bleach, discovered that all bathing suits were on sale, bought one for the beach next month since last year I had only one that fit and got tired of doing laundry twice a day. Watched "By Any Other Name" to review Friday; unlike "Patterns of Force" last week which did not hold up as well as I remembered, this one held up better, even if it is rather silly.

Am very pleased Helena Bonham Carter is playing Bellatrix in OOTP onscreen! And very pleased chocolate may boost brain power! And pleased beyond words because told me about the BritSuperstore which ships chocolate covered Kendal Mint Cakes to the US! Trek news today was Nimoy donating money for modern art and Shatner being Shatner; what more can anyone ask of him, really? So between all this and Enron convictions, a good day!


Why we still have not repaired the top front step...


...there are TWO chipmunks living under it!


Though we did not realize that until today when we spotted them both outside the storm door at once (sorry about the glare and my pink shirt reflected in the glass).


And who can resist that face? Not I.

And while you're back here, gacked from :

In the dark ages, how would cruisedirector die?

You would run off of a poorly-lit cliff while in pursuit of your secret lover. Cliffs were even more of a hazard back in the day, you know.

'How would you die in the dark ages?' at QuizGalaxy.com