Poem for Friday

Here, Bullet
By Brian Turner

If a body is what you want,
then here is bone and gristle and flesh.
Here is the clavicle-snapped wish,
the aorta's opened valves, the leap
thought makes at the synaptic gap.
Here is the adrenaline rush you crave,
that inexorable fight, that insane puncture
into heat and blood. And a dare you to finish
what you've started. Because here, Bullet,
here is where I complete the word you bring
hissing through the air, here is where I moan
the barrel's cold esophagus, triggering
my tongue's explosives for the rifling I have
inside of me, each twist of the round
spun deeper, because here, Bullet,
here is where the world ends, every time.

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A poem currently being passed around among American soldiers in Iraq, another from last Sunday's Washington Post Book World, the annual poetry issue, here on the cover.

Let's just write off this week as a loss, okay? I still have bronchitis. I still have no energy to contribute anything intelligent to any current debate. The most exciting thing that happened to me today was a raccoon on our deck after dark that made all three cats puff out their tails and thunder around the first floor in a panic. Am absurdly pleased that The Tudors will be back next season, considering that it's as historically absurd as ever -- it has really grown on me, though without Anne Boleyn (oops, is that a spoiler, heh) I am not sure that will continue. I was also pleased to see that UC Santa Cruz will get the archives of the Grateful Dead -- the school's mascot is a banana slug, and since Adam adores banana slugs and Paul adores the Grateful Dead, we can't wait for the tie-die banana slug t-shirts. Have some Brookside orchids:















Smallville...I know it's very wrong of me but I want Lana to stay in a coma until the show is cancelled! Because Chloe-and-Jimmy-centric episodes with a side helping of Lex are so much more fun! Spoilers: Even with Lionel dead, Martha gone, Lois absent and Clark as annoying as ever -- last week he was much too worried about Lionel to think about Lana, now he's on the all Lana all the time channel -- the show can eke out some interest for me if Chloe has something fun to do. I didn't even mind that she had to be rescued because it was Jimmy instead of Superman. And any episode containing the line "This entry didn't just Rita Skeeter itself into Swann's journal" has redeemed its existence right there.

Also watched a Next Gen episode I largely didn't remember to review on Friday and half-watched the end of the Wizards blow-out playoff game; they're still down 2-1 but hey, the Capitals are out of the playoffs entirely so it's a matter of DC pride. If I believed a city's pride rested in pro sports, which I don't. But it's not like DC has much to be proud of in terms of the things for which it's best known, and the Wizards' record is better than certain people's approval ratings!