Poem for Friday

Listening
By Diane Elliot

On the balcony
outside my window
doves drinking dew
are messengers of fire.
Wild parrots ululate,
shriek their desire:
"mate, mate!"
Bees methodically
pollinate
a figoa tree.
Through
a curtain of fine, orange cotton
I view
sky, leaves, buds, sun.
Who
is digging in my garden,
urging me
"Plant now, don’t wait"?

--------

We are going to my in-laws' tomorrow night and I am not remotely organized...I mean, we have gifts for them and sufficient clean clothes to be out of town, and cat-sitting and all the holiday mail taken care of, and all I have to do tomorrow is come up with something to say about "The Lights of Zetar" besides "OMG WHYYYYYY?" (Trek news is boring me to tears at the moment; endless "Gene Roddenberry's former babysitter chimes in with opinion on J.J. Abrams" stories.) I'm sure I will be much mellower once I am actually up there but I feel frazzled.

I went back to the House of Musical Traditions and bought myself the lap harp with the Green Man (a Wood Spirit, according to the manufacturer, but I still say it's a Green Man). Have coveted this since I first saw it at the Renaissance Faire three years ago and have been told that for my fortieth birthday I should get something that will teach me something or exercise a different part of my brain. Am hoping my ear is still good enough that I can figure out melodies on it.


Winter trees for Yule. I was in the car at the moment of the solstice, but going to a folk music store still seems an appropriate activity.

My new favorite seasonal story: "Virgin Dragon Prepares to Give Birth", the heartwarming story of a Komodo dragon who has never been with a male of her species yet has managed to fertilize her own eggs. (Second favorite seasonal story: "Pooping Peasant Popular in Spain", "where for centuries symbols of defecation have played an important role in Christmas festivities," and please don't tell my children or they will want to get one.)

I should have something to say about Deathly Hallows, shouldn't I? But I really don't, other than it makes me think of that plastic Halloween faux graveyard statuary you can buy in mall stores in October. Which I suppose is not really a good thing, but Prisoner of Azkaban sounded pretty silly when I first heard it, too, and it remains my favorite of the books and films.