Poem for Sunday and Maryland Zoo

Back in Seaside
By Shanna Compton

Rain interchangeable with
the walls it falls against
alphabetless like a neon
ring above an extincted
window showcasing something
formerly fabulous now
kinda poignantly disappeared.
I guess that means we're back
in Seaside (since we must
begin somewhere) and it's
probably summer but
can't be as long ago
as the date you suggest
since I wouldn't have been
born, or quietly gagging
at the sentence re: photographs
being "fairly far removed" from
sculpture anyway belied by
a euthanized block
of period tract housing
the loading dock's pair
of refrigerated trucks
the guileless curbs below
the blandishing panes
of all those plate windows
the corrugated doors
rolled shut against a
statement the curves
of the cars as they
throw back their throats
to the light the furtive
things people do in the night
(or don't do) bluely
compiled screen by screen
in perfervid surveillance
I just want to say yes
to you, yes and
watch this.

--------

Though we had sun and temperatures in the low 70s forecast for Saturday, the morning was actually drizzly and quite cool. I chatted online a bit with Daniel and discovered that he had a cold. We had told Adam that we would take him to the Maryland Zoo, and I had asked to come meet me there, so despite the rain we headed to Baltimore after lunch. It stopped raining as we drove past the Inner Harbor and that was pretty much it for the day, which was very fortunate! The zoo was not at all crowded and we walked through all the major areas -- the arctic, Africa, the Maryland wilderness, and the farm, plus the wooded trail to and from the entrance since it was too nice an afternoon to bother with the tram. The swinging bridge was knocked down during Hurricane Irene, but we got to see penguins trying to catch a beetle, prairie dogs climbing their fence to eat the plants beyond it, a cheetah pacing in a small cage while his enclosure was being mowed, and a duck flirting with zoo visitors. Here are a few of the animals:

















Daniel had texted that he was out of soup and not feeling well, so since we had to pass by College Park on our way home anyway, we stopped at a grocery store, grabbed a couple of things for him, and swung by his dorm to drop them off. He was in a good mood despite his cold when we saw him, and we had thought this would be a quick, simple operation, but two hours after the Terps had (unfortunately but unsurprisingly) lost 37-31 to West Virginia, there was still a great deal of traffic on Maryland's campus and all around the Beltway. We ended up taking University Boulevard most of the way home, which was slow but not as bad as 495. Evening entertainment was Doctor Who, which I did not find very entertaining -- The Sarah Jane Adventures did a similarly-themed story without the air of self-congratulation -- and a variety of college football games, none of which I cared about passionately!