Poem for Friday and Sculpture Garden

Rural Spring Poem
By Nicky Beer

A thrasher in the linden
cobbles an aubade from thrushes, jays,
doorslams, donkeycall, thunderclap.

The azaleas hold fistfuls of bee-sodden paper.
Out here, gunshots sound whimsical, or bored.

The new colt, still creased and kinked as an unfolded shirt,
has four comically outsized knees,
shotputs weighting him to the earth, a cool dream
above which he'd spent months
trussed and dangling.

I want to shrug out of the year,
hang it on a branch like a truant,
and float out into the deepest part of this hour,
forgetful as a fish.

I would like to wear the warm mask the sun hands me,
let my face recede into my skin like old, unstable ink.

But the sleek eggs yield blind razors
and the dogwood cannot stop
its terrible pink thoughts.

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Beer's 2010 book is The Diminishing House.

I'm watching the women's skating long program as I'm typing this so I'll keep it short. Nothing very exciting happened today, anyway -- I organized the shelves under my desk in anticipation of getting a new desktop computer, which I know sounds like something that should have taken twenty minutes, but actually took hours and I still have a box of Lady Pendragon and Promethea comics that have to be put somewhere else. I watched the Trek episode I need to review tomorrow ("A Fistful of Datas," heh). Plus Superpoke released a Star Trek habitat, an Avatar habitat, a comics store habitat, and a fairy castle habitat, so I spent a bit of time clearing out older habitats to make room for my penguin's new items.

















Quickly re: skating -- I am thrilled for Joannie Rochette, I can't even imagine what her week has been like. I thought Kim Yu-Na skated beautifully, though I don't know if I'd go as far as NBC did and declare it the greatest performance by a woman skater ever. I wish Mao Asada would have smiled -- she landed her jumps, her footwork was excellent, she was simply up against a flawless performance. And I must admit that I found Mirai Nagasu's performance to be the most exciting of the evening by a long stretch, even if she isn't quite at their level yet.