Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Poem for Wednesday

Near Field
By W.S. Merwin


This is not something new or kept secret
the tilled ground unsown in late spring
the dead are not separate from the living
each has one foot in the unknown
and cannot speak for the other
the field tells none of its turned story
it lies under its low cloud like a waiting river
the dead made this out of their hunger
out of what they had been told
out of the pains and shadows
and bowels of animals
out of turning and
coming back singing
about another time

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This week my children are getting to experience an archetypal event dreamed about by many yet witnessed by few: the wrecking of their school. Well, it's no longer their school since they're both in middle/high school, and it's being demolished only so that it can be rebuilt bigger and better while the school's students are sent on buses to another school 20 minutes away...but it's still been a source of great amusement for all the local kids, who have been congregating and cheering across the street after getting out of whichever school they're attending now. I went to pick younger son up in the rain and there were people standing around with hoods and umbrellas watching the demolition.


My children's elementary school in mid-demolition.


Lots of local kids stood around cheering as the walls began to come down.


A giant hole has appeared in the side of the building.


Sadly for the kids, this long dreamed-of event did not get them out of attending school.


And it's noisy and creating traffic and some litter, but no one is complaining yet.

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The rest of my day consisted of things like finally getting to the post office with packages I owe several people reading this, driving younger son to Hebrew school and excitement like that. After dinner we watched Ratatouille on Pay-Per-View, and it was very worth it -- I'm just sorry I didn't see it in the theater. "One can get too friendly with the vegetables!" I missed the rat talking when the humans showed up and I was worried for a while there that his family wasn't coming back and it was going to be all people! I should have realized that, this being Disney, all the other rats would turn up soon. I howled when Linguini was trying to explain to Colette that he has a very little tiny...chef, and at Gusteau's Scooby Doo corn dogs, and that they made Peter O'Toole's Anton Ego look a bit like Alan Rickman. *g* And the animation was fantastic.

Didn't watch the Democrats debate; I voted, there's nothing I can do at this point but wait and see, and the more I hear Hillary and Barack snipe at one another and one another's followers, the more turned off I get to both of them, so since I am going to vote for one of them in the fall no matter what, I'd rather wait till there's a nominee to worry about what either is saying.

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