Poem for Sunday and Homestead Farm Apples

Pyrotechnics
By Amy Lowell

I

Our meeting was like the upward swish of a rocket
In the blue night.
I do not know when it burst;
But now I stand gaping,
In a glory of falling stars.

II

Hola! Hola! shouts the crowd, as the catherine-wheels sputter and turn.
Hola! They cheer the flower-pots and set pieces.
And nobody heeds the cries of a young man in shirt-sleeves,
Who has burnt his fingers setting them off.

III

A King and Queen, and a couple of Generals,
Flame in colored lights;
Putting out the stars,
And making a great glare over the people wandering among the booths.
They are very beautiful and impressive,
And all the people say "Ah!"
By and by they begin to go out,
Little by little.
The King's crown goes first,
Then his eyes,
Then his nose and chin.
The Queen goes out from the bottom up,
Until only the topmost jewel of her tiara is left.
Then that, too, goes;
And there is nothing but a frame of twisted wires,
With the stars twinkling through it.

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The forecast Saturday was for rain at some point during the day, and indeed it looked like it was raining quite a bit during the Maryland game, which we watched while waiting for Adam to get back from the Oatlands Invitational cross country meet, where he ran a 5K in under 20 minutes so he was very pleased with himself (the Terps lost to West Virginia). But we only got a bit of rain, so in the afternoon we picked up Maddy and went to pick apples at Homestead Farm. Where I discovered that my Nikon D50 is officially dead; I'd thought it was battery issues or charger issues, but I had two fully charged batteries with me and the camera insisted on not taking photos. I can't afford another DSLR till my birthday at least so it is going to be a miserable few months.

















Anyway, as you can see the sky was pretty spectacular with dark clouds trying to move over the light ones, and we got plenty of apples for dinner and for pie later on, plus we got to see the goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, etc. It drizzled a bit on the way home and poured briefly on Adam while he was walking the neighbor's dog, but that was it. The Orioles beat Boston, the Nationals beat Milwaukee, and I actually liked Doctor Who -- it made me briefly hopeful that given the producers' penchant for heavy-handed foreshadowing, maybe the current companions will leave not on a horribly tragic note or a darkly bittersweet note, but with a cheerful smile and a wave of relief. Not that I am in any way counting on that, just that it would be a nice change from recent companion changes.