Poem for Saturday

The White Room
By Charles Simic

The obvious is difficult
To prove. Many prefer
The hidden. I did, too.
I listened to the trees.

They had a secret
Which they were about to
Make known to me--
And then didn't.

Summer came. Each tree
On my street had its own
Scheherazade. My nights
Were a part of their wild

Storytelling. We were
Entering dark houses,
Always more dark houses,
Hushed and abandoned.

There was someone with eyes closed
On the upper floors.
The fear of it, and the wonder,
Kept me sleepless.

The truth is bald and cold,
Said the woman
Who always wore white.
She didn't leave her room.

The sun pointed to one or two
Things that had survived
The long night intact.
The simplest things,

Difficult in their obviousness.
They made no noise.
It was the kind of day
People described as "perfect."

Gods disguising themselves
As black hairpins, a hand-mirror,
A comb with a tooth missing?
No! That wasn't it.

Just things as they are,
Unblinking, lying mute
In that bright light--
And the trees waiting for the night.

--------

I did three things primarily on Friday: packed for the beach, wrote a cranky review of TNG's "Coming of Age", and backed up my LiveJournal in its entirety at GreatestJournal and InsaneJournal, thanks to how-to information from here and here (I'm a longtime user of , even though it doesn't work on my fan fiction community for reasons unknown, but this is the first time I've used either to change security settings or to migrate entries and I am going to send the creators a donation as soon as I'm finished cleaning up my GreatestJournal entries. Locking just the adult entries at my fic comm was a very time-consuming process but it's done now. I'm not quite finished custom-locking the Voyager fic here, but I figure there are two advantages to doing so: people who want to read my locked personal entries but not fan fiction won't have that stuff showing up on their friends lists, and I'll know that every single person seeing those posts here will not be offended. Really there is very little I have written that could be considered questionable, but I don't want to make legality the standard because there are still places where portrayals of two men kissing are illegal.

I also took the kids to lunch with , who will be babysitting Rosie and Cinnamon while we are at the beach. We had Thai food at the mall and went to look at shirts in Hot Topic (well, and I also looked for the Rose Titanic Barbie but KB Toys didn't have her). We had intended to watch The Natural, but came home to e-mail about the journal deletions and I wanted to lock my stuff at right away. I think I got it all, but if anyone notices anything of mine that's not locked, I would appreciate it a lot if you told me! We had dinner at my parents' though I had (and still have) a screaming migraine, nail-pounding-over-the-right-eye sort. And I folded laundry watching Doctor Who, though I must say that the Dalek duology impressed me neither in terms of mythology nor in terms of characterization, though it had visuals I enjoyed and occasional sweet moments.

: A dragon lives forever but not so little boys
1. What is your local lake/river/sea? Bucks Branch Creek is closest but we're not far from the Potomac River.
2. Do you believe in dragons and unicorns? Only the stuffed variety, I'm afraid.
3. What is your favorite fruit? Blackberries.
4. Do you smoke? Never. Not one single cigarette. I lost all four of my grandparents to them.
5. Friday fill-in: Together they would _____ . Bring down the corrupt government and commence a new age of enlightenment.

: If
1. If you were a fruit, which would you be and why? What is this, fruit day? I have no idea. Coconut maybe because I'd be a tough nut to crack and I'd smell good.
2. If you wake up and smell smoke, and you have to get everybody (pets included) out of the house safely, but you have time to grab one item, what would you grab? My phone/MDA.
3. If you were stuck on an island, who would be the one person you would want with you and why? Someone with one of those GPS communication devices, and I wouldn't care what that person smelled like or anything.
4. If you could change one thing about your physical appearance, what would it be? No moles with the potential to become dysplastic. I don't care what they look like but I don't want skin cancer.
5. If you could spend the day with one famous person, dead or alive, who would you choose? Jesus Christ. I have a few questions and I'd like a few clarifications.

: What five character deaths affected you the most?
1. Spock, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (before we knew he was coming back)
2. Bambi's mother, Bambi (it's archetypal horror for kids)
3. Joshua, The Arm of the Starfish (at the time, I didn't realize he was Jesus, which makes him a huge improvement on Aslan)
4. Boromir, The Fellowship of the Ring (it was a good death, but so sad)
5. Damar, Deep Space Nine (he died a tragic hero, and he stayed dead)

: Name your Top 5 Deathly Hallows Moments
1. Snape furious at Dumbledore for having raised Harry only to die.
2. Hermione conjuring the wreath for Harry's parents' grave.
3. "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!"
4. Voldemort comparing his wand's size to Lucius Malfoy's.
5. Draco trying not to identify Harry, Ron and Hermione.


INS Tarangini, a visitor from India at Sail Baltimore earlier this year.


A working naval vessel, her sailors on deck were in uniform and unfailingly polite.


The ones in the kitchen, however, were having a good time and cooking something that smelled great.


The ship had many visitors who wanted a turn at the wheel.


And she has a very pretty insignia.