By Anne Spencer
Gay little Girl-of-the-Diving-Tank,
I desire a name for you,
Nice, as a right glove fits;
For you—who amid the malodorous
Mechanics of this unlovely thing,
Are darling of spirit and form.
I know you—a glance, and what you are
Sits-by-the-fire in my heart.
My Limousine-Lady knows you, or
Why does the slant-envy of her eye mark
Your straight air and radiant inclusive smile?
Guilt pins a fig-leaf; Innocence is its own adorning.
The bull-necked man knows you—this first time
His itching flesh sees form divine and vibrant health
And thinks not of his avocation.
I came incuriously—
Set on no diversion save that my mind
Might safely nurse its brood of misdeeds
In the presence of a blind crowd.
The color of life was gray.
Everywhere the setting seemed right
For my mood.
Here the sausage and garlic booth
Sent unholy incense skyward;
There a quivering female-thing
Gestured assignations, and lied
To call it dancing;
There, too, were games of chance
With chances for none;
But oh! Girl-of-the-Tank, at last!
Gleaming Girl, how intimately pure and free
The gaze you send the crowd,
As though you know the dearth of beauty
In its sordid life.
We need you—my Limousine-Lady,
The bull-necked man and I.
Seeing you here brave and water-clean,
Leaven for the heavy ones of earth,
I am swift to feel that what makes
The plodder glad is good; and
Whatever is good is God.
The wonder is that you are here;
I have seen the queer in queer places,
But never before a heaven-fed
Naiad of the Carnival-Tank!
Little Diver, Destiny for you,
Like as for me, is shod in silence;
Years may seep into your soul
The bacilli of the usual and the expedient;
I implore Neptune to claim his child to-day!
--------
It rained all day Friday and though most of the leaves are still green, there's enough red and gold showing up that it's starting to look like fall. Not that I was out of the house for long enough to see much of it: my longest trip out was to pick up Adam at school after cross country practice in the rain. I was finishing and posting a review of "The Counter-Clock Incident", the final episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series. Then I made the traumatic realization that I have now reviewed every single episode of official Star Trek (except the reboot). So I spent the rest of the afternoon updating the index pages on my web site, since there weren't links to half the Next Gen reviews nor any of the animated reviews. They are now all here!
While I was picking up Adam from school, Paul was picking up Daniel from College Park -- he came home this weekend for his birthday and so we could go to the Pennsylvania Renfaire on Sunday. We had dinner with my parents (soup, chicken and "chicken," potato pancakes, noodle kugel, carrot souffle...most of the things Daniel will miss at Rosh Hashanah dinner next week) and he got a Nintendo 3DS so he can play Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked (so much for not having a game system at college, hahaha). Then we came home and watched the season premiere of Nikita, whose plot at this point is more convoluted than necessary but I couldn't care in the least because Nikita, Alex, and Amanda are three of my favorite women on television and Alberta Watson's devious Oversight character is back! Here are a few more photos from the zoo last weekend:
Fannish5: Five times a character's pregnancy created a good storyline.
I'm wondering whether this means an actress's pregnancy, because a character pregnancy IS a storyline, it doesn't create one. So going with that...
1. Deep Space Nine, when Nana Visitor's pregnancy inspired the writers to have Kira carry Miles and Keiko's baby for them.
2. Xena, when Lucy Lawless's pregnancy brought about the birth of Eve (later Livia).
3. Boston Legal, when Julie Bowen's pregnancy became Brad and Denise's baby.
4. The X-Files, when Gillian Anderson's pregnancy led to Scully's unnatural pregnancy in the abduction arc.
5. Stargate Atlantis, when Rachel Luttrell's pregnancy brought about the birth of Teyla's baby.
No comments:
Post a Comment