By Peter Streckfus
Come to the surface of the screen with your piscine light
and oxygen holes and press for moments
against the page—as if seeking to pass through it.
Make with the trunk of your body the third letter—
in a motion move the ends of your face and caudal fin
each to your right, toward each other — C.
Toward the third hour on your axis—
and in the same motion sweep your trunk back,
tail beat pushing through the ninth hour, moving you
headfirst in the new direction and off the screen—
this movement follow with movement of more bodies,
simultaneous, unselfconscious, aggregate—
choral, co-created, a gathering
of you in the mind—oscillate behind the screen like a wheel
of bodies, a promenade—it we you he she—
move through the water column, skins of bodies,
similar, discreet—company, crowd, collection,
shoal and plural movement of consciousness.
Setting and set by the turbid water in motion,
the new law of movement. Dissolution
and coming into being. Appear as lights
and images on the screen, your voices faded
to an inaudible and drawn-out O!
meaning here is the place we asked for!
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Streckfus's 2004 book is The Cuckoo.
We had a fairly quiet Saturday, in part to catch up from being out of town and in part because it rained in the afternoon. I spent the morning unpacking, doing laundry, and trying to catch up on various articles and correspondence. In the afternoon we went to see Cowboys and Aliens, which I enjoyed more than I was expecting -- I love the lead actors, but I'm not much of a fan of Westerns and I don't like alien shoot-em-ups much either, so I was delighted at the extent to which the movie ridiculed the macho idiocy of both genres and even let Harrison Ford poke fun at himself a bit. I wished there were more women with substantial roles and I wish the film had been a bit more mocking of the Indian stereotypes, but overall it was a nice surprise compared to actual well-reviewed Westerns I've seen; give me this over Clint Eastwood any day. In the evening I folded laundry and we watched the most recent film version of Jane Eyre, in which I liked most of the actors very much (supporting cast members as well as Wasikowska and Dench) but found Fassbender quite unsympathetic, though I'm not big on Rochester to begin with.
We had veggie hoppin' john for dinner that Paul had made to bring on our trip but we ended up keeping it in the refrigerator the whole time. Paul also wrote to the sea turtle rescue group N.E.S.T. to find out how the baby turtle we found was doing; they wrote back, "We believe it may have been one that just recently hatched out of one of our nests this week located in Kill Devil Hills. It was due to be released after it regained some of its strength." Its odds of reaching maturity are still not terrific -- only about one in a thousand loggerheads lives to be 20, though they have life spans nearly as long as humans -- but I am glad it didn't get eaten by a gull on the beach. Here are some photos from the beach at Kill Devil Hills where we found the turtle, taken over several days in the Outer Banks:
Visitors brought umbrellas, chairs, blankets, and assorted toys and snacks to the shore.
When not hunting in the water for small crabs and fish, gulls were happy to steal potato chips, cookies, and anything else they could grab.
Late in the afternoon, people came to fish.
I am pleased to report that we saw more jellyfish washed up on the shore than swimming in the water.
Pelicans crossed the sky and dove over the water to catch fish.
The ropes surround a sea turtle nest (which it is a crime to disturb). It is possible that the baby turtle we found came from this nest, though we found it many dozens of yards away.
At night, ghost crabs came out in the sand...
...and toads in the grass.
The Friday Five: School Days
1. Bully, teacher's pet, geek, shy kid in the corner, or something else? Geek.
2. What did/do you usually eat during lunch time at school? School lunches. I never, ever want Montgomery County Public Schools lunch pizza again.
3. What did/do you normally wear to school? Thinking back to what you wore(if you've already graduated), do you like it? Nothing terribly interesting. It was the era of designer jeans, which I largely avoided.
4. Any sports/activities/clubs you participate(d) in? The literary magazine and the speech team.
5. Any worthwhile friends you (would) still keep up with after graduation? I'm still in touch with a couple of friends from first grade.
Fannish5: 5 sequels (or continuations) you thought were better than the original.
1. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (best of the Treks)
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Pirate King Elizabeth Swann)
3. Boston Legal (far above The Practice)
4. Sharpe's Eagle (more to love than Rifles)
5. Aliens (two words: Sigourney Weaver)
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