Poem for Thursday and Impending Halloween

Gulls
By William Carlos Williams

My townspeople, beyond in the great world,
are many with whom it were far more
profitable for me to live than here with you.
These whirr about me calling, calling!
and for my own part I answer them, loud as I can,
but they, being free, pass!
I remain! Therefore, listen!
For you will not soon have another singer.

First I say this: you have seen
the strange birds, have you not, that sometimes
rest upon our river in winter?
Let them cause you to think well then of the storms
that drive many to shelter. These things
do not happen without reason.

And the next thing I say is this:
I saw an eagle once circling against the clouds
over one of our principal churches—
Easter, it was—a beautiful day!
three gulls came from above the river
and crossed slowly seaward!
Oh, I know you have your own hymns, I have heard them—
and because I knew they invoked some great protector
I could not be angry with you, no matter
how much they outraged true music—

You see, it is not necessary for us to leap at each other,
and, as I told you, in the end
the gulls moved seaward very quietly.

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I had a very nice, busy Wednesday after inadvertently sleeping late due to cats smushing next to me to keep warm on one of the first truly cool mornings of the fall. I met for lunch at California Pizza Kitchen (though neither of us had pizza), then I stopped in several stores in Washingtonian -- Charming Charlie (which has the lavender-and-citrine jewelry from the spring half off), Bath & Body Works (which was out of light-up bat anti-bac holders, waah), Barnes & Noble (which does not have must-have 2013 calendars in yet), and Target (which was in the process of switching from Back To School to Halloween):


I went to get Target's exclusive Andy Warhol Campbell's Soup cans. They only had three of the four and many of those were dented but we had to have them anyway.


The Halloween decor is only just beginning to arrive...


...but skulls and spiders are already in evidence...


...as well as this new awesomeness, Mr. Potato Head reusable pumpkin decorations!


Here is the cat bench by the bridge over the lake...


...and gulls and geese hoping to be fed while the new kids' train goes around.

Target also had summer clothes 70% off, meaning I got a dress for $7.40 and a pair of jeans for $11. I got home only minutes before Adam from cross country and Paul from work, meaning the cats were nearly unconscious from starvation. I went for a walk to see the bunnies and deer while they're still hanging around the neighborhood, we had rarebit for dinner, then we watched the Orioles game while keeping track of the Nationals game (both won, huzzah) before the news -- very upsetting from Libya but I wanted to hear what the networks were saying. pointed me to this quiz -- highly entertaining, I got 8/10 but think "pah" was unfair!