Poem for Thursday

Autumn in the Yard We Planted
By Ellen Bryant Voigt

Whoever said that I should count on mind?
Think it through, think it up—now that I know so much,
what’s left to think is the unthinkable.

And the will has grown too tired to stamp its foot.
It sings a vapid song, it dithers and mopes,
it takes its basket to the marketplace,
like a schoolgirl in her best dress, and watches
others ask outright for what they want—
how do they know what they want?—and haul it away,
the sweet, the dull, the useless, and the dear.

A maudlin, whimpering song: in which I lament
my own children, scything their separate paths
into the field, one with steady strokes,
one in a rage. We taught them that. And,
not to look back: at the apple tree, first
to shatter its petals onto the clipped grass,
or the blowsy heads of the russet peonies,

or even that late-to-arrive pastel, all stalk
with a few staggered blossoms, meadow rue—
though surely they could see it from where they are.

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It has not been a very eventful day around here besides preparing for the kitten, who will be coming home on Thursday! We had to dig out the baby gate to keep her in our room uninterrupted by other cats for a few days (well, if she is like Cinnamon it may only be a few hours, but Rosie will try to steal her food so we will probably need to keep it in our bathroom at first!). After much debate over names, none of us being enthralled with "Daisy" which is a bit flowery for such a playful kitten -- Rosie came with her name, and since she was three years old already the kids insisted we could not change it, whereas Cinnamon had been named "Phoebe" by her shelter but she didn't seem like a Phoebe so I named her after Cinnamon Carter from Mission: Impossible -- the leading contender for the new one is "Autumn"; and I were pulling for "Calypso" but Daniel refused to consider it, and refused to consider "Anya" because cats are demonic enough without being named after vengeance demons!

I did have a nice lunch with discussing things like our kids' inability to keep their bathrooms clean and the suspect heterosexuality of Jake Gyllenhaal, whom I hear may be starring in a remake of Brothers with Tobey Maguire. Speaking of remakes, Trek news for the day was that Jerry Bruckheimer is remaking Eleventh Hour for US television with an enormous budget and a top CSI director...I bought the original on DVD for last Chanukah and clearly we need to watch it before CBS gets its paws all over it and casts someone other than Patrick Stewart! Anyway, since and I were at the Corner Bakery near Target, I went in to get shampoo and $3 cut-off shorts and stopped to admire the Halloween display:


The Halloween display at my local Target. Probably looks a lot like the Halloween display at your local Target if you have one!


And a few more from the Halloween Adventure store that opened in the old Tower Records space. You can make your own graveyard...


...or set up your own devil (hey, people who are going to hell with me for writing porn, we can practice!)...


...or affix a giant spider to your ceiling!


And wouldn't you love a tasteful hearse in your front yard, with a giant snake that comes out of the coffin?


Or do you prefer goofy ghost inflatables?

Watched Gossip Girl, produced by my kids' dentist's son, and while I was reasonably entertained, I suspect I shall be blowing it off in the future in favor of The Bionic Woman remake unless the latter is really bad (and even if it is, I may just not watch TV on Wednesdays, since Monday is Heroes and Tuesday is Boston Legal and I will probably need a break). The acting was all decent but the storyline is sort of washed-out Cruel Intentions and I can't imagine following that for several weeks!