Poem for Saturday

Bats
By Paisley Rekdal

unveil themselves in dark.
They hang, each a jagged,

silken sleeve, from moonlit rafters bright
as polished knives. They swim

the muddled air and keen
like supersonic babies, the sound

we imagine empty wombs might make
in women who can’t fill them up.

A clasp, a scratch, a sigh.
They drink fruit dry.

And wheel, against feverish light flung hard
upon their faces,

in circles that nauseate.
Imagine one at breast or neck,

Patterning a name in driblets of iodine
that spatter your skin stars.

They flutter, shake like mystics.
They materialize. Revelatory

as a stranger’s underthings found tossed
upon the marital bed, you tremble

even at the thought. Asleep,
you tear your fingers

and search the sheets all night.

--------

All week I've felt like it was Friday, and then today I kept forgetting it was Friday and trying to make plans for weekdays this week no longer has. Wrote a review of "When the Bough Breaks", a Next Gen episode it is simply impossible to love, and against my better judgment let the kids watch Date Movie, which they knew about from Epic Movie and was free On Demand and rated PG-13, but despite the main character explaining at one point that because of the rating there can be no actual lovemaking, I'd have preferred actual lovemaking to the fat jokes and sleaze. I realize Date Movie gets it honestly -- it's sending up such truly atrocious movies as Shallow Hal -- but I felt like I had to sit there citing all the references so the vulgar stuff would have a context and really except for the Meet the Fockers and My Best Friend's Wedding bits, it was mostly crude slapstick, not nearly as on target as Epic Movie.

: Here Fishy Fishy
1. Have you ever gone fishing? Yes. Couldn't eat the fish we caught though; I can't eat anything I killed, even if it was lobster boiled in my kitchen by someone else.
2. Do you have an aquarium? Not at present.
3. Do you eat fish? Yes, with great enthusiasm.
4. Have you ever seen Finding Nemo? Once in the theater and several times on DVD.
5. What do you think of sushi? I'm not terribly adventurous because I've known two people who had horrible health problems from contaminated sushi, but I love basic California rolls, tuna, spicy salmon, etc.

: What is your favorite quote on ...
1. ... family? "The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's lives. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof." -- Richard Bach
2. ... relationships? "Love cannot fill the thickened lung with breath,/Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;/Yet many a man is making friends with death/Even as I speak, for lack of love alone." -- Edna St. Vincent Millay
3. ... attitude? "Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace." -- Amelia Earhart
4. ... happiness? "Shining like a summer rainbow, we are colors, we are bright/Vanishing into the sunshine like a river made of light/Floating in a summer memory, I can see you in my mind/Know it goes on forever, far beyond us, far behind." -- Julie Flanders
5. ... success? "You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, "'I live through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.'" -- Eleanor Roosevelt

: What five characters would you like to see get more attention in fan fiction?
1. Elizabeth Swann, Pirates of the Caribbean
2. Kira Nerys, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
3. Narcissa Malfoy, Harry Potter
4. Sir Edward Pellew, Horatio Hornblower
5. Teresa Moreno, Sharpe

: This week's questions are all about Order of the Phoenix, so if you haven't seen it yet beware spoilers!
1. How did you feel about the movie overall? Loved it. There are things I would have included from the book, but I thought the flow of this film was better than any other except Prisoner of Azkaban and the acting was terrific.
2. What were your favorite parts? Occlumency lessons, Remus and Sirius in Grimmauld Place, flying over the Thames, Harry teaching DADA.
3. What were your least favorite parts? I found Dumbledore impossible to like in the book and didn't feel any differently in the movie. Also, Sirius calling Harry "James" continues to drive me batshit.
4. What was your favorite line? Alan Rickman's line reading as Snape on the words "No idea" when Umbridge asks him what Harry is talking about is priceless -- conveys contempt, subterfuge, amusement, disgust and unquestioned authority all at once.
5. Do you think this was an accurate representation of the book? There were many things from the book that I missed, foremost being nearly all the Hermione subplots -- the house-elves, Grawp, getting Rita Skeeter to write about Harry -- plus Firenze teaching Divination and lots of little details with Sirius and his family, not to mention the idea that Neville could have been the Chosen One. But overall, yes, I think it got the essence of the book right.

So after all the "where are we going on vacation" woe with my sister refusing to go anywhere that doesn't cost several thousand dollars, it seems that we are, in fact, going to the beach with my parents as we have done the past several years. My mother claimed that she thought we didn't want to go to the beach with them which is why she hadn't suggested it, which is hilarious in that and I first lobbied for the Jersey shore or a Long Island beach or wherever my sister was willing to drive in the direction of the ocean, before we tried suggesting Williamsburg or Jamestown or Philadelphia or Manhattan or the Finger Lakes or anywhere that wasn't the resort at Mohonk. Ah well, at least we are no longer the Evil Relatives Ruining The Family Vacation.

This all came to light during dinner with my parents at a nice restaurant in Chevy Chase, followed by ice cream for the kids at Giffords -- I pretty much never go out for ice cream, it's not one of my weaknesses like chocolate bars, but their Swiss Chocolate is still my favorite flavor, though I was too full for it after shrimp at Clyde's. Came home and watched "The Shakespeare Code," having previously seen it on a miniscule television in Wales (not that I am in any way complaining, as I wish I could have watched the whole season on a miniscule television in Wales) and what a delight to be able to see such detail in the theatre and the performers' expressions. I love that they cast someone as Shakespeare who looks like the love child of Russell Crowe and Kenneth Branagh! And I love the Harry Potter connections -- what a perfect week to show this episode! Was talking to about Patrick O'Brian books and got in the mood for some tall ship pictures...


This is Cisne Branco, visiting from Brazil. She has been in Baltimore several times, often playing live music.


Because Cisne Branco is an active Navy ship, her sailors are always immaculately dressed and quite happy to talk about their travels.


This is Cisne Branco's wheel. I'm guessing from my knowledge of French and Spanish that "Tudo Pela Patria" means "Everything for the Homeland" or something similar.


We have never been allowed belowdecks, but the beautiful Saint's Lobby is visible from above. The carving of the saint was made by descendants of the man who carved the original, brought to Brazil by Pedro Álvares Cabral, the Portuguese explorer who discovered the land.


The ship's bell, and a visitor.