Poem for Wednesday

Wild Goose Chase
By Sarah Manguso

My desperation was like that—
I was clambering up a fire escape on Houston Street in hot pursuit
while there it was, lying on a beach in Oregon.
If I could only perceive it, see how large it was,
and be persuaded of its finitude.
You share a detail and I share a detail
and there we are, boring one another
with such sad banalities as we deserve.
I thought I recalled my adversary playing chemin de fer on B Deck
but it was only me, sitting in a red dress, imbibing red drinks.
I can't always recognize myself. Who's there?
or there? Pluck the tune on a zither,
carve the words on a stone slab. Make something,
anything. My desperation called to me, murmuring,
I leaned in to kiss it, and it was gone.
The source of it, deep in some distant volcano,
had to be quenched. I was all set to go on an important journey,
to buy the phrasebook and read it on the boat, getting ready
for the cool wind across my face, fires burning in the sky
and the geese of mourning crossing overhead
as if in a daze and as if themselves an indication of hope.

--------

came over and we went shopping! And she bought me a Hogwarts crest necklace! And penguin tissues for Adam! And brought me goodies from Sectus (UK Nestle chocolate) and Prophecy (souvenirs from Toronto)! Then we went to Legal Seafood for lunch, where I had garlic shrimp and linguini, and came back to my house, where we watched The Search for John Gissing with the commentary on...quite entertaining on Alan Rickman as perfectionist actor who brings tons of notes and recommendations to the table, but Mike Binder spent too much time talking about how he plans to remake the film and not nearly enough describing his process in filming Alan nailing the scenes. We also watched the deleted scenes (Alan dancing like a maniac) and bloopers (Alan giggling) and then I insisted putting on the restored scenes in the extended version of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, plus the interviews with Alan and Kevin Costner on the second disc. So, a very lovely afternoon!

I am so utterly confused by LiveJournal's policies at this point that I don't know what to think...it's almost as perplexing as the doubletalk coming out of Karl Rove and now Dennis Hastert (ever get the urge to sing that sports staple, "Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, goodbye!" to a politician?). It was easier to focus on fictional news, like Anjelica Huston appearing on Medium -- I have never seen that show but clearly this is going to change -- and Trek news, including Shatner & Nimoy reenacting Spock's death at the Las Vegas Star Trek convention last weekend plus a rumor that Russell Crowe is being sought to play the villain in Star Trek XI. What a dream for me!


In addition to the fairly classy shipwreck museum on the upper floor, Sea Shell City sells lovely collectibles like these owls.


They also have the Beatles -- complained that the hair should be darker, but I love the little glasses on John.


Here is a live hermit crab in a pretty, shiny shell.


And here are dried sea sponges -- I keep thinking of the scene in the SpongeBob movie where SpongeBob and Patrick get dried out by the evil shell collector!


The store also sells the Mayflower, the Constitution and other historic American ships in bottles...


...and the Pinta, Nina, Santa Maria, Victory and more!


And of course there are shell mobiles and necklaces and beach towels and pillows and plastic crabs and magnetic pirates and all manner of goodies.

The Orioles shut out the Yankees, yay! This makes up for the RedSox meltdown and since the Red Sox won, the balance is restored!