By Eleanor Lerman
I am out before dawn, marching a small dog through a meager park
Boulevards angle away, newspapers fly around like blind white birds
Two days in a row I have not seen the meteors
though the radio news says they are overhead
Leonid's brimstones are barred by clouds; I cannot read
the signs in heaven, I cannot see night rendered into fire
And yet I do believe a net of glitter is above me
You would not think I still knew these things:
I get on the train, I buy the food, I sweep, discuss,
consider gloves or boots, and in the summer,
open windows, find beads to string with pearls
You would not think that I had survived
anything but the life you see me living now
In the darkness, the dog stops and sniffs the air
She has been alone, she has known danger,
and so now she watches for it always
and I agree, with the conviction of my mistakes.
But in the second part of my life, slowly, slowly,
I begin to counsel bravery. Slowly, slowly,
I begin to feel the planets turning, and I am turning
toward the crackling shower of their sparks
These are the mysteries I could not approach when I was younger:
the boulevards, the meteors, the deep desires that split the sky
Walking down the paths of the cold park
I remember myself, the one who can wait out anything
So I caution the dog to go silently, to bear with me
the burden of knowing what spins on and on above our heads
For this is our reward:Come Armageddon, come fire or flood,
come love, not love, millennia of portents--
there is a future in which the dog and I are laughing
Born into it, the mystery, I know we will be saved
--------
It was a quiet Friday around here, during which my only accomplishment was finishing a review of Star Trek: The Next Generation's "The Chase". It was my dad's birthday and we had dinner with my parents -- my mom grilled lamb for my father, I had tofu and bean casserole, and Paul made strawberry layer cake since my dad loves strawberries. Now we're all watching the mediocre 1974 film of The Great Gatsby, which Daniel just read in English class and I haven't seen in a couple of decades -- the directing is clumsy and the screenplay is unimpressive, but the casting is spot-on, which makes up for a lot.
Hungry koi beg for food at Showcase Aquarium, where several Taste of Wheaton visitors got to feed them.
A translucent glass catfish.
An elephant nose fish.
A gar eating a live goldfish.
A baby pufferfish.
A stingray.
A lionfish.
An underwater hermit crab.
The Friday Five: Grillin' Out
1. What side dish do you like the most: potato salad, macaroni salad, baked beans, etc. Sesame noodles.
2. Do you prefer food grilled on a charcoal or gas grill? Charcoal.
3. Do you want just one meat item, or a mixture: such as chicken, steaks, hot dogs, hamburgers, etc. I stopped eating red meat and pork more than a decade ago, and I no longer eat chicken or fish, so a mix of tofu/seitan would be fine.
4. Do you want to eat outside or inside? In nice weather where it's shady, outside. If it's overly sunny, hot, muggy, or buggy, inside.
5. Does it bother you to have citronella candles burning if you are eating or cooking outside? Not at all.
This week's Fannish5: List the 5 series (tv, book, or movies) that best kept their quality, from beginning to end.
1. The Aubrey/Maturin Books
2. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
3. The Dark Is Rising Books
4. The Sharpe Films
5. Due South
Last week's Fannish5: Name five characters you'd like to take a road-trip with, and where you'd go.
1. Sarah Jane Smith from The Sarah Jane Adventures, everywhere in the universe
2. Kira Nerys from Deep Space Nine, all over Bajor
3. Benton Fraser from Due South, all over Canada
4. Elizabeth from Elizabeth: The Golden Age, all over England
5. Jack Aubrey from HMS Surprise, anywhere we could sail
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