Poem for Saturday

Lecha Dodi/Welcoming the Sabbath
By Jay Michaelson

we are sitting adjoining each other
thighs touching slightly on the tight bench in shul,
barely looking, not knowing, not wanting to intrude,
singing, welcoming the sabbath queen together,
our voices intermingle
i find your tentative voice and merge with it
two tenors melding in middle range
until we almost sound
as one.

this is the sending out and the receiving,
this mingling of fluids
oil, honey, water, milk
or
two divisions of the river
joining in return.

the harmonies below arouse the one above
sweetening judgments
erasing with kindness
lines
come, beloved, let us greet the queen
together
and receive the face of returning.

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Early post because I'm on my way to Pennsylvania. Spent the morning on the phone with because neither of us had our stuff together to go out to lunch, writing a piss-poor review of "The Lights of Zetar" which is really as bad as I recalled from all those years ago and copying files from my computer to my travel drive; spent the afternoon with who got sent home from work early for the holidays, organizing the kids' play plans and having dinner with my parents and celebrating the last night of Chanukah.

Was alarmed to see that Rockhopper Penguin Numbers Are Tumbling in the South Atlantic despite the adorable photo at this link, and not sure son will be happy to hear that After a Run of Penguin Chic, It’s the Year of the Meerkat with two documentary films about the adorable beasties in production.

: It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas...
1. Will you be having a white Christmas? Doesn't sound like it.
2. Best present you could get/have already received this season? Camera lens, lap harp, getting Doctor Who season two when it's out.
3. Egg nog or snogging under the mistletoe? Snogging.
4. Is time on your side? I hope so.
5. Favorite holiday tradition: Candles.

is five ways I'd kill a character in my fandom if I had to. But I am pretty sure J.K. Rowling will do plenty of that for me in The Deathly Hallows and I don't do deathfic, so just...no.


It's bowl season...and in honor of that, here is a hermit crab from a vendor outside the Newport Aquarium living in a plastic football helmet.

Bawled through "Doomsday" (the only episode of this season's Doctor Who I had actually watched all the way through, the day I downloaded it, and I bawled that time too). Refused to leave for Pennsylvania till it was over! But now I have to throw my stuff in the car for the Dickens Christmas on Saturday. Have a great holiday weekend everyone!