Poem for Thursday

Father's Song
By Gregory Orr

Yesterday, against admonishment,
my daughter balanced on the couch back,
fell and cut her mouth.

Because I saw it happen I knew
she was not hurt, and yet
a child's blood so red
it stops a father's heart.

My daughter cried her tears;
I held some ice
against her lip.
That was the end of it.

Round and round: bow and kiss.
I try to teach her caution;
she tried to teach me risk.

--------

Had a relatively quiet day playing catch-up, which means folding four loads of laundry, writing three articles, returning a bunch of phone calls and e-mailing a couple of friends in Europe who had all written with loud virtual sighs of relief. Plus younger son had violin -- he appears to have recovered from his resistance to learning chords -- and in the evening there was a meeting at the local middle school about the magnet high school programs, to which we dragged older son so he could hear about the International Baccalaureate program (he already knows about the two math-science magnets, one of which is at the high school where his bus arrives and leaves from and the other of which has an ecological slant which he would like but is at a school very far from where we live). We have to make decisions in the next few weeks about where both kids will apply to go to school next year. At least younger son has given up insisting that he wants to go where his brother went just because his brother went there, which I think is partly familiarity and partly competitiveness, and has agreed to apply to the more language and writing-oriented magnet; he's good at math, but he just isn't into it, and I don't see him being as happy in the same program, though older son has been as content as I think possible in middle school so maybe it's just an extraordinary program, period.


The skipjacks Elsworth and Stanley Norman at the Downrigging Weekend in Chestertown.


Here are the Kalmar Nyckel and Sultana in the background and the Pride of Baltimore and Virginia in the foreground.


The schooner Lady Maryland and the buyboat Mildred Belle. These ships, like Pride and Virginia, were tethered together so people could visit both.


The schooner Sultana, which docks in Chestertown for the winter, sponsored the event.


Another photo of the Kalmar Nyckel, because she is so lovely. Annie D and When & If are between her and the inner dock.


And another shot of the glorious Sunday sunset.

I hear that Wednesday may soon stop being a TV-free night for me as Sci-Fi is thinking of moving Battlestar Galactica -- not really good news since its ratings are down, and who knows whether I'll remember to watch it then -- it's been so convenient having it on after Doctor Who! I hope this means they're going to pair BSG with Caprica when it's finished and are saving the post-Who space for Torchwood I downloaded this week's but haven't watched it yet, had too long a day Sunday as it was.

I had other stuff but I'm sleepy and still suffering from, if not post-election euphoria, then post-election mollification, so I had better sleep on it!