By Pattiann Rogers
Maybe no one can distinguish which voice
Is god's voice sounding in a summer dusk
Because he calls with the same rising frequency,
The same rasp and rattling rustle the cicadas use
As they cling to the high leaves in the glowing
Dust of the oaks.
His exclamations might blend so precisely with the final
Crises of the swallows settling before dark
That no one will ever be able to say with certainty,
"That last long cry winging over the rooftop
Came from god."
Breathy and low, the vibrations of his nightly
Incantations could easily be masked by the scarcely
Audible hush of the lakeline dealing with the rocky shore,
And when a thousand dry sheaths of rushes and thistles
Stiffen and shiver in an autumn wind, anyone can imagine
How quickly and irretrievably his whisper might be lost.
Someone faraway must be saying right now:
The only unique sound of his being
Is the spoken postulation of his unheard presence.
For even if he found the perfect chant this morning
And even if he played the perfect strings to accompany it,
Still, no one could be expected to know,
Because the blind click beetle flipping in midair,
And the slider turtle easing through the black iris bog,
And two savannah pines shedding dawn in staccato pieces
Of falling sun are already engaged in performing
The very same arrangement themselves.
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I'm sure I've mentioned that Rogers is probably my favorite living poet. This gem is in Firekeeper: Selected Poems.
This is going to have to be an extreme quickie because I got my Google Music Beta invitation an hour ago and have spent the past sixty minutes reading the disclaimers, uploading my music, installing the app on my phone, etc. Daniel got his invitation a few days ago and has been singing the service's praises; I hesitate only because Google has not said a word about how much it will cost for storage space and/or bandwidth once the beta period is over, whereas with Amazon's cloud I know both the limitations and the expectations.
My big event for the day was taking Daniel to get his cast removed. He has a splint now, which he is not required to wear (and is not supposed to wear for showering, swimming, etc.) but the orthopedist thought it would be more comfortable after four weeks in a cast. When we left the doctor's office we stopped at the mall, where my mother and Adam tracked us down and asked if we wanted to meet them at California Pizza Kitchen, which we did. Then I traded boys with my mother, taking Adam home with me while she took Daniel to get ice cream.
We watched the goofy animated Star Trek episode I need to review this week, then the new Futurama episodes (not my favorites, especially the gender swap story which didn't parody stereotypes in many cases so much as reinforce them, but still amusing). It's the second-to-last week of regular Superpoke Pets item releases, so since I am enough of a loser to have discussed my pursuit of the Boardwalk habitat yesterday and I lost the hour before I started futzing with the music app to getting this week's items, here are some of my penguin's recent adventures.
The Isle of Man
Thai Grand Palace
Royal Pet Port
Buckingham Hall
Werewolf Village
The Tony Awards
Welcome to Yellowstone
The DC Folk Festival
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