Poem for Tuesday

I am Like a Desert Owl, an Owl Among the Ruins
By Noelle Kocot

The alpha You. The omega You.
My grandmother’s ghost, its girlish snafu
Basking in the waters of urgency.

But I want the coolness of snow.
I want pairs of hands that speak to me cleanly,
Sutras to resuscitate what reigns

Over warped celluloid and heirlooms I can’t touch.
There are no family photographs.
Once I was ordinary.

I rattled around with arms, with legs,
With a damp remembering that served me well.
Then, a little sleep, a little slumber,

A little folding of the hands to rest.
I asked myself, don’t you just love it?
And then, why don’t you just love it?

And then, from what grace have I fallen?
Am I Sisyphus with his mute rock
Unsettling the topsoil, dissolved now

Into brandied battle shouts and pages that breathe like people?
There are hazards here, more so than before
The Furies struck and scarved the white night sifting

The bright waterlights blinking
And grieving over a mash of ice.
Like them, I wanted only to die, moon-dark, blessed,

Poised beneath the driest arrows of my suffering,
Far from the flocks of burning, singing gulls,
Face to face with the God of my childhood.

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I have had a lovely day about which the only negative thing I can say is that I ate too much. came to visit and we had porn and pie, as promised! And Middle Eastern food, because it's a good idea to have some protein before pie (the kind in the porn doesn't count, heh). And we talked a lot and went to the Container Store and watched more porn.

Then hubby made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner and we had more pie and I ate a whole pile of spicy little crackers while watching Heroes. Which I enjoyed in an X-Men kind of way, though I found it very slow to get started; it reminds me a little bit of Threshold, too, in the suggestions of overarching conspiracy, but that aspect of the series is more interesting than the immortal cheerleader. Ironically my favorite character is the one whose lines I missed most of because my son was talking to me about homework and I had to look at him and the dialogue was only in English in subtitles -- the Japanese guy who's into Star Trek and Backstreet Boys karaoke. I am curious how the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde woman is going to get away with killing her enemies, though -- won't it still be her fingerprints? I was otherwise occupied but I also half-watched Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which I didn't really enjoy -- I'm still not digging any of the female characters and, except for moments of slashiness, not really liking the guys either.

I did shriek happily when Matt said he had had great sex with the studio exec and that's why they were back, and I was glad Danny told the truth about his cocaine problem, but the minute he jumped into the "voluntary" right-in-the-middle-of-everything public prayer circle, I threw up. I hope everyone on the staff quits rather than having to put up with two bosses publicly supporting holier-than-thou Harriet Hayes' "if you don't let me proselytize in your face it just shows you don't respect my religion" bullshit...actually I just hope an anvil falls on her and gives her a sign to go back to The 700 Club, because or not even rooting for Jordan is going to keep me watching that show otherwise.

I didn't get going on work until late in the day and I postponed writing a Brent Spiner article so I could throw up a quickie about Scott Bakula appearing on The New Adventures of Old Christine (Scott not being nearly a compelling enough reason for me to watch Julia Louis-Dreyfus...I am not sure whether Sean Bean would be a compelling enough reason for me to watch Julia Louis-Dreyfus). But I did post my Alexander Siddig interview. made me extremely happy by bringing DS9 season one with her, so I watched bits of "Duet" and "In the Hands of the Prophets" and was very happy. Tomorrow I may watch the bits of "Dramatis Personae" where Kira hits on Dax. Am thinking I may need to own DS9 season two just for "Necessary Evil"...well, and the opening trilogy, and "Crossover"...


His Majesty King Henry VIII, whom I encountered on the way to the talk on the history of navigation. He did not ask me to marry him but he did agree to pose for a portrait.


The friendly king stopped to talk to small children, too.


Here is the Portuguese sailor demonstrating how knots were counted (not to scale or there would have been a lot more line to roll up afterward). He also helpfully explained how one could tell one's position using a quadrant because, since the Earth is the center of the universe and all the planets and stars move around it in fixed spheres, it is relatively easy to plot them.


A photo of Sir Henry Clifford taken while standing next to at the joust.


And here is Sir Henry leading Sir William and the others on a lap around the arena.

On Tuesday my son officially turns 13. I feel old. And sleepy. *g*