Friday, May 14, 2010

Poem for Friday and Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

Statements as Questions
By John Gallaher


We've been leaning toward people for years, out there
with our inside voices. Surrounded by hyacinth
and purple skies.

I've been meeting their gazes as well, pretty friend.
See it as an act of citizenship, with these neat rows of houses
under fluffy trees, as we're full

of quavery emotions out here. And we've plenty of fluffy trees,
they start from the ground
                                                 and go all the way up…
Call it education.
(Summer night. Blank pages.) And how it's grasped.
This park, say. With lovers

and crickets. A basketball someone forgot, back and forth
slightly in the breeze, as we have our knowledge
and we have our knowing.

I'm desperate to see you, say. Or, Call me…

Something is bound to happen
in the understory, among the palliatives.

For the little book of guesses, dark birds
against a dark sky.

I don't know how to comfort you.

--------

I had a weird Thursday, mostly nice, but a lot of it was taken up with making plans for a trip that it now looks like is not going to happen this weekend. I wanted to take my wedding ring to a jewelry repair shop as soon as possible, so I asked Gblvr if she wanted to meet me at the mall for lunch. I was afraid they would say the ring would take a week -- the excellent jeweler in the other local mall took that long the last time I wanted it resized -- but they said it would only take a few hours and I could pick it up that evening. I had discovered that Starfruit Hawaiian -- which is known for coffee and gelato -- now has crepes, so I dragged Gblvr there and we shared cheese and nutella-and-fruit crepes, which were wonderful. Then we wandered into Macy's and over to the bargain rack, where I found an adorable quasi-Renfaire-looking velour top on sale from $45 to $6...shopping does not get any easier or better than that.

I needed to get home to get Adam on track for tennis, so after I stopped to pick up my ring which they had finished early for me, we came back to my house and watched the first half of Avatar, which am loving just as much this time through. Then Gblvr went home to her monster and I dropped mine off at tennis -- Daniel had had a history AP exam in the morning from which I had expected to have to pick him up before lunch, but he decided to go out to lunch with his girlfriend instead and hang out until robotics after school. We all watched FlashForward together, then "Starship Mine" -- the Next Gen episode I need to review tomorrow. We are a bit sorry that EW is reporting that it looks like Heroes is getting canceled, and glad Kristin Chenoweth is awesome.


An angel from the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery plot of the Delavan family. (Guess why I first noticed it, Doctor Who fans!)


Daniel Delavan was a captain of the local militia that erected the military earthwork...


...on which the American Revolution memorial in the cemetery now stands.


This is another view of the Civil War burial ground in the cemetery.


When we first saw it, a hawk had perched on the head of the statue of the soldier.


World War I and II veterans have their own burial ground in the cemetery as well.


The hawk was not the only beautiful example of wildlife we saw in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, though we did not see any of the deer that sometimes wander through. This is an eastern bluebird.


When I first noticed this stone, I thought it had a flapping bird on it as well; then I realized that the interestingly spotted bird was actually a candleholder.


Daniel has a chorus concert on Friday and a big school presentation on Monday, so we have concluded that going to Boston for the graduation dinner would be insanity. Sigh. I did get to talk to my brother and sister-in-law, at least -- the ones from L.A. with the vegan restaurant!

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