Windows
By Linda Bierds
When the cow died by the green sapling,
her limp udder splayed on the grass
like something from the sea, we offered
our words in their low calibrations—
which was our fashion—then severed
her horns with a pug-toothed blade
and pounded them out to an amber
transparency, two sheets that became,
in their moth-wing haze, our parlor windows.
They softened our guests with the gauze-light
of the Scriptures, and rendered to us,
on our merriest days, the sensation
of gazing through the feet of a gander.
In time we moved up to the status
of glass—one pane, then two—each
cupping in proof of its purity
a dimple of fault, a form of distortion
enhancing our image. We took the panes
with us from cottage to cottage,
moth-horn and glass, and wedged up
the misfitted gaps with a poultice
of gunny and wax. When woodsmoke
darkened our bricks, we gave
to the windowsills a lacquer
of color—clear blue with a lattice
of yellow: a primary entrance and exit
for light. And often, walking home
from the river and small cheese shop,
we would squint their colors to a sapling
green, and remember the hull
of that early body, the slap of fear
we suffered there, then the little wash
of recovery that is our fashion—how
we stroked to her bones a cadenced droning,
and took back from her absence, our
amber, half-literal method of sight.
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Been awake since 4 a.m., so this may not even be coherent. Not a lot to report, anyway: did a bunch of work on one of my web sites that desperately needed it, wrote three articles for TrekToday, two of which involved transcribing tedious interviews (the Alexander Siddig one was interesting but since the questions weren't included in the video, it was hard to tell when he was talking about an actor vs. a character, the Lee Arenberg one was fun when he was talking about theater/film work and not name-dropping). Schlepped kids various places, tried to deal with younger son's best friend who came in with his arm bleeding after a fall from a bike who refused to go see his own mother because she was dealing with her two babies. Eep.
Another gets up close and personal with my in-laws' garden.
There are several bunnies who live nearby, though these are the two who were most in evidence last weekend.
Maximus the groundhog was also out enjoying the warm evening in Hanover.
This is how close the hogs get to the houses.
And here is Maximus with a friend or significant other! Though no babies yet this season.
Boston Legal finally ran its season finale, which I enjoyed though it says a lot to me about why I watch this show that I found it sadly apolotical even though it was a fantastic Alan/Denny story with a nice side of Jerry/Clarence/Shirley and a few seconds of !bliss! Brad/Denise. For a dreadful moment I thought they were setting us up for an ugly rift to shake things up next season, but they didn't even let that idea stick around long enough to shake things up in the episode...I shall trust David E. Kelley more next time, and that is a reason for sticking with any show.
The main case is one of those ripped-from-the-headlines, brothers-accused-of-killing-father cases with Alan and Denny representing the brothers, and Alan doesn't think they can beat Murder One charges; he wants them to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, since their own psychiatrist is ready to testify that they had threatened their father's life in response to his abuse. Alan fears that if they lose, both teenagers will spend their lives in prison, but Denny is more worried that if they lose, he will no longer be undefeated (Alan thanks him for providing the bigger picture). Matters just get worse when the judge suggests that another firm should represent one of the boys, asking Denny to drop out of the case even though he "used to be Denny Crane," knowing that Alan will defend him or he'll lose his sleepover privileges. While Brad is preening over his daughter, Denny is sulking, until Alan orders him to safeguard his legacy by saving those boys.
When things aren't going well after the coroner and psychiatrist testify, Alan is surprised to receive a used condom wrapped in medical stationery. It turns out to have the DNA of the boys' mother, who insists that Alan and Denny should be able to get her sons off, and her dentist, who is also her alibi since she was having her teeth cleaned at the time her husband was murdered. Alan demands to know whether she shot her husband and she pleads the Fifth, but the prosecution -- which also received an anonymous used condom -- has already questioned the dentist, who said she seduced him just two days ago in an apparent effort to make herself look like a suspect so there's reasonable doubt where her sons are concerned. Alan is angry with the mother and angrier with himself for not having known that he was set up.
And here comes the twist: Denny, who has already expressed frustration about Alan doing all the cross-examinations, gets his client to testify that he saw the brother holding the gun that killed their father. Alan rants at him in the courtroom -- they've already had a bit of a spat this episode, since Denny admitted that he talked to Shirley about his need for attention and Alan doesn't understand why Denny was running around sharing feelings with Shirley instead of Alan himself, to which Denny replies that he thought if he were vulnerable, Shirley would have sex with him, an agenda he doesn't have with Alan. Now Alan shouts that Denny is making a big mistake, though Denny claims it's just duty to his client. But in private, moments later, Alan agrees that the performance went perfectly and now the other brother will accuse the first while Denny feigns something between fury and Mad Cow.
Meanwhile, Jerry and Clarence take a case from a woman who went to Las Vegas and lost $80,000 she didn't have. She wants to sue the casino, saying that she has a gambling addiction and they had no business giving her such a big line of credit. Shirley is angry that they took such a hopeless case, and the casino's lawyer thinks this is all a joke set up by a mobster, particularly since Jerry says things like, "My client lost all her virginity...er, money!" and makes purring noises. Shirley insists on sitting in on the next meeting, though the casino lawyer says nothing will change just because they brought in Shirley Schmidt; he doesn't even believe that Clarence and Jerry are lawyers until Jerry, using information from a contact of Alan's, pops a cigarette into his mouth, affects an accent and tells the lawyer to ask the casino owner whether they use synthetic pheremones to make gamblers feel more at ease and incur bigger debts. The casino lawyer comes back with a non-negotiable offer of over $200,000 to make the case go away. Shirley first congratulates Jerry and Clarence, then rolls her eyes as they dance around.
The DA prosecuting the brothers says that the jury should not buy into the bogus reasonable doubt created by Alan and Denny, saying that they both killed their father and this tactic of blaming each other could let two murders go free. Alan argues that there were other people with motive and no alibis, but the police were so focused on arresting the boys that they didn't pursue any other leads. Denny insists that there is reasonable doubt about whether either brother or both did it, whether they fantasized about doing it or not; Alan says that under the law, they must both be set free. After some painful moments of waiting during which Alan says he wants to win, partly because he believes the boys are innocent but partly because he wants Denny to triumph, the jury finds both brothers not guilty.
"I'm so good even I don't believe it," announces Denny, whom Alan congratulates on his brilliant strategy of having the brothers accuse each other and promises to come for a sleepover. Denny is still a bit troubled that the judge knows about the sleepovers and wonders whether it's odd for two grown heteros to have sleepovers at all, but Alan says, "Who cares...I wouldn't trade them for anything." Denny is overjoyed not to be "over," as he puts it. He and Alan toast "next season," saying they can't wait to see what they'll do next. And for good measure, they add a "till death do us part" and "may no man tear asunder." And they live happily ever after...at least until the fall time slot shuffling begins!
Had dinner at California Tortilla, and hopefully
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