By D. Nurkse
We understood we were hurtling into space
at eighteen miles per second, clouds of atoms
charged and polarized, each alone
in the abyss, and you wore your summer dress.
The light under the poplar was mottled
but the shade of the pines was feathered.
We were bundles of self-cancelling voices—
flight and response, punishment and reward,
hostile adoration, panic and certainty—
from long before the Bronze Age,
yet we made our own promises
by suppressed coughs or sneezes
and sat a little apart
but sometimes our eyes brushed.
We sipped Montepulciano from a paper cup
until the bottom darkened
but still it was not evening,
still the world was ending,
already we resented the breeze
for choosing and marking us,
still a song too short to sing
moved two famished sparrows
like pawns from branch to branch.
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My uncle is very ill. I don't have a lot to report from my day other than that; I did a bunch of pre-trip chores, took the kids to the pool, uploaded lots of files to my SkyDrive, things like that. We are going to New York to see him this weekend -- up Saturday morning, home Sunday evening -- and have a million trip-related things to do around that so I am probably going to be scarce. And unhappy. Here, since it is difficult not to smile when looking at penguins...
Penguins being fed at the Maryland Zoo when we visited a couple of weeks ago.
Each penguin wears a colored ID tag...
...so the zookeepers can keep track of which birds have had enough and which need to be fed!
After eating, some penguins go for a swim...
...while others prefer to waddle around contemplating their next move.
Inside, some penguins defend their eggs and nest boxes...
...while some engage in nest-building...
......and some just lie around!
A couple of people on my friends list were playing with Wordle so I followed their links over there and plugged in my review of Voyager's "Resolutions" to see what would happen. I got this lovely thing that looks a bit like a sideways pine tree!
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