Poem for Thursday and Longwood Tulips

You Envelop Me [Excerpt]
By Laynie Browne

16

for I have taken refuge in you

A book —whose wings— swallow me
Bird, created from water mixed with sand
Uses of wings, and claws hold oil for lamps
Conceiving a wing-ed book is beginning to sort one's thoughts
An egg placed under the foot of a bedframe— to steady
Quills for writing were unknown in Talmudic times
Birds of three hundred and sixty-five hues read
Headlines or psalms as an indistinguishable combination of
Affliction, concentration and praise
"Flee as a bird to your mountain."

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Wednesday was our chore day of spring break. While Paul took Adam to get a haircut and new sneakers, I went for my annual physical, where everything looked good except for my hemoglobin, which has been borderline anemic since I stopped eating seafood a couple of years ago (I hadn't eaten red meat or pork for more than a decade at that point), and my blood pressure, which has been borderline for more than five years now -- the diastolic goes down with my weight but the systolic has been hovering at slightly-too-high consistently. So my doctor said iron supplements every single day, not just when I feel like I need them, and let's try an ACE inhibitor. So if I am coughing or having nightmares in the next couple of weeks, you will know why.

I am not particularly distressed about this, since it isn't particularly news (I had grandparents with heart issues and was frankly more worried about my blood sugar and cholesterol, both of which looked great. So I immediately went to meet my family at that bastion of health food, California Tortilla, for lunch. Then we came home and Adam's girlfriend came over. I did laundry and other exciting chores, Paul worked on taxes, eventually I took the kids to Robeks and ran into CVS and Giant to get some things while they drank their smoothies. TV tonight has included Dave Matthews and Adele in concert on PBS (the latter in particular is fantastic), then a Science Channel special on supermassive black holes. Longwood Gardens tulips: