Poem for Monday and Barely Balanced

I do not love you...
By Pablo Neruda

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I do not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

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I'm going to the doctor very early tomorrow morning to find out WTF is wrong with my eyelid and why the entire left side of my face is now hurting. I called my eye doctor's off-hours number in the afternoon, figuring I'd get his answering service to ask whether I should go to an overnight clinic or something, and discovered that it was his cell phone -- he said warm compresses for a half-hour at a time and come in at 7 a.m. for an antibiotic. Except for a lot of reading and some writing, I didn't get much done on Sunday -- it was chilly and raining so it's not like I missed a glorious crisp fall afternoon, at least.

After dinner we watched last week's episode of Boardwalk Empire, which we'd missed driving home from the Pennsylvania Renfaire, then we watched this week's new episode. I find it odd the extent that I root for Nucky given what a murderous sleazebag he is -- it's partly that I really like Margaret, but I really like Angela too and I really can't stand Jimmy. In and around everything else I did today, we watched the Redskins beat the Rams (and the end of the Lions embarrassing the Cowboys and the Eagles losing, yay) and now we're watching the Jets make things easy for the Ravens. Though what I like best about football today is seeing all the men wearing pink for breast cancer awareness. Barely Balanced from the faire on Saturday: