Poem for Thursday

Photographing Aspirations
By Les Murray

Fume-glossed, unbearably shrill,
this car is dilated with a glaze
that will vanish before standstill—

and here's the youth swimming in space
above his whiplash motorycle:
quadriplegia shows him its propped face—

after, he begged video scenes
not display his soaking jeans,
urine that leathers would have hidden

and the drag cars have engines on their engines.

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Kids had a two-hour delay due to icy conditions, but when I went to drive younger son at 9:30 it was still plenty icy -- I slipped going down my front steps which look prettier without the hand railing but now I realize we were insane to take it out when we repaired the stoop. And then the county canceled after-school activities to avoid a repeat of yesterday's nightmarish rush hour, so the kids were not out of the house for very long. I did manage to fold laundry, at least, while watching Snake Eyes, my favorite Brian De Palma film...yes, I know Scarface and The Untouchables are supposed to be his masterpieces or Body Double if you go for that sort of thing, but Snake Eyes is more restrained in its violence, it's technically brilliant and it has what I think it Nicolas Cage's best performance, plus Gary Sinise and Carla Gugino. (I reviewed this film several years ago for GMR.)

I keep forgetting to talk about things I watched...I recently saw The Guardian, which was insanely predictable -- we were guessing dialogue as it was coming out of Kevin Costner's mouth, and I believe the ending was implying that Kevin Costner is Jesus, which is an idea so hilariously funny that Ashton Kutcher's somber voice-over kind of ruins the somber mood. Yet embarrassingly, we all enjoyed it anyway, even though -- or perhaps because -- it's a shameless Top Gun clone. The Washington Post had an article this morning about polyamory with the quote, "It is about loving your primary partner enough to love that they have a new secondary partner, even when their New Relationship Energy with that person leaves you, briefly, out in the cold." Husband read it and asked, "Do you think Rosie and Cinnamon felt left out in the cold when we had New Cat Energy with Daisy?" This made me howl.


The trees were iced very nicely in the morning.


Unfortunately, so were the cars, the sidewalks and some of the roads.


Lovely to look at but no fun to walk or drive in, particularly as the rain was coming down and freezing on contact.


Jack decided to come out of the bucket where he hid earlier this year and plant himself in this groove in the underside of the plastic wading pool on our deck.


Need I explain how the cats felt about this? There was much chittering and yowling.

Have a lovely Valentine's Day...or a happy Lupercalia if that is more your festival -- I have read conflicting dates for it this year putting it on either side of Valentine's Day -- and, at any rate, a happy mid-February!