Poem for Tuesday and Maymont Animals

Lie
By Rae Armantrout

1

I lay down
the acidification
of the ocean
with a sly smile.

Unstoppable
beats fiery impact
every time.

*

But the sweet yellow
shoulders of the road—

the up and up
into same blossom.

I'd like to hold these
in reserve.

2

“Protect your identity”
says Mileage.com
three times today
as if it knew something.

I may want to fly cheap,
cruise in luxury,
buy a walk-in-tub
and burial insurance.

*

I may want to lie still
and think about my choices.

--------

"Like most of my poems, 'Lie' has several sources," Armantrout tells Poets.org, citing The Sixth Extinction, the Tucson desert in bloom, and spam e-mail.

Apart from a lot of screaming at the Supreme Court, who did not reply because they were on the other side of my TV and computer screens, my Monday was pretty quiet. I caught up on email and stuff from Sunday, watched France advance in the World Cup, went to CVS and Giant with son to get ingredients for a cooking project of his, then came home and worked on a jewelry project with beads Lin gave me while Adam's friend who just had her wisdom teeth out came over to watch Miyazaki movies with him.

Adam had made Nutella pudding for his friend, so she stayed for dinner though she isn't supposed to eat non-mushy foods yet so that's about all we could feed her. We watched the first episode of The Musketeers, which was a lot of fun, then the Samuel L. Jackson-Keira Knightley episode of Graham Norton Show, which was hilarious, and since The Daily Show is a rerun, we are now watching Almost Royal, which is unexpectedly a riot. Some pictures from Maymont's animal park (invited and wild residents):

Placeholder for Monday

We spent all day with both kids in Richmond, plus significantly more time in the car than we expected getting there and home due to lots of stupid drivers! We met Cheryl and Lin at Maymont's nature center, where we ate lunch overlooking the wildlife park, then we walked through the park (the bear was hiding, but we saw the bison, sheep, goats, pigs, deer, lynx, fox, raptors, and lots of local residents like frogs, turtles, and herons) and visited the Japanese garden with its waterfalls and flowers.

Then we went with Cheryl to Dogwood Dell to see the Henley Street Theatre and Richmond Shakespeare perform The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) and afterward to Mexico for dinner, where we also watched the end of the Costa Rica-Greece World Cup game while eating lots of chips, salsa, and various enchiladas and burritos. We came home the long way around so we could drop Daniel off in College Park. Here are a couple of photos from Maymont and one from the Shakespeare, more soon!

Poem for Sunday and Pennyfield Lock

Joyride
By Ana Bozicevic

Skinny dirt road
In the middle of the ocean.
That led to the house of art.
I took it. The engine nearly
Drowned. I lied that it was fun
That I'd do it again. When I got to
That shore
The house was gone and when
I looked back, so was the path.
Now I'm old. Drown in my bed
A thousand miles inland.
For years I thought
I could
Art my way back. Cats sing
Of rose dawns. This country's a
Mirror image
Of the one I left, except
I've bad dreams. And
You're the only
Person who's not here.
Is it the same
For you.

--------

We actually had both kids around for lunch, though they both slept late after staying up late, so since it was a gorgeous hot-but-not-insane Saturday, we went to Pennyfield Lock to see the canal and river. There were adolescent goslings and a unicyclist, lots of turtles and lots of kayakers, and it's a very lush green summer because we've had so much rain!















Adam went out to dinner with a friend; the rest of us watched Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland with Cheryl who was watching at her own house. We want our own frog servants, pig foot rests, and wise blue Alan Rickman caterpillars, and we promise to treat them better than Helena Bonham Carter does. The Nats won a double-header!

Poem for Saturday, UMCP, Wrongs Darker Than Death, Moonrise Kingdom

Love in the Morning
By Annie Finch

Morning’s a new bird
stirring against me
out of a quiet nest,
coming to flight—

quick-changing,
slow-nodding,
breath-filling body,

life-holding,
waiting,
clean as clear water,

warmth-given,
fire-driven
kindling companion,

mystery and mountain,
dark-rooted,
earth-anchored.

--------

My morning was mostly taken up with finishing a review of Deep Space Nine's problematic yet still riveting "Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night". Right after lunch, we went back to College Park, first to retrieve Adam from his orientation-and-registration weekend and to stop in the bookstore for some shirts and college paraphernalia, then to pick up Daniel so he could come home and do some driving over the weekend. Here are a few more photos of the University of Maryland:


There are supposedly only eight Fear the Turtle statues left on campus and now that I've seen this one near the rec center, I believe I have taken photos of all of them.


Here I am with the bronze Testudo in the student union yesterday.


I know I've posted pictures before of the bench outside the student union honoring alumnus Jim Henson and Kermit. Here's the view of it from inside the building.


Though the dairy has produced ice cream for many years, it is now sold in the student union, both scooped and in quarts!


We stopped to see the sheep on the campus farm...


...and, across the street from the farm, the new physical sciences building.


There are many black squirrels on the campus. They are just as eager as the gray squirrels to beg for food.


The view toward McKeldin Library past the big sundial above the fountain.

We had dinner with my parents and came home in time to watch Moonrise Kingdom, which none of us had seen and which is excellent, if odd -- I don't love Anderson the way hipsters tell me I should, many of his films are inexcusably sexist, but this one is really charming -- and then watched the last two episodes of Orphan Black. Those are worthy of a post of their own, but I'm very sleepy now from two days of walking around College Park (and closer to home, where we had several bunnies!).

Poem for Friday and University of Maryland Orientation

Woman on Twenty-Second Eating Berries
By Stanley Plumly

She's not angry exactly but all business,
eating them right off the tree, with confidence,
the kind that lets her spit out the bad ones
clear of the sidewalk into the street. It's
sunny, though who can tell what she's tasting,
rowan or one of the serviceberries--
the animal at work, so everybody,
save the traffic, keeps a distance. She's picking
clean what the birds have left, and even,
in her hurry, a few dark leaves. In the air
the dusting of exhaust that still turns pennies
green, the way the cloudy surfaces
of things obscure their differences,
like the mock orange or the apple rose that
cracks the paving stone, rooted in the plaza.
No one will say your name, and when you come to
the door no one will know you, a parable
of the afterlife on earth. Poor grapes, poor crabs,
wild black cherry trees, on which some forty-six
or so species of birds have fed, some boy's dead
weight or the tragic summer lightning killing
the seed, how boyish now that hunger
to bring those branches down to scale,
to eat of that which otherwise was waste,
how natural this woman eating berries, how alone.

--------

We spent the entire day, literally dawn till dusk, at the University of Maryland, where Adam was attending the Honors College orientation. We went with him to the big group meeting, then they sent the kids off to one set of panels and the parents to another, plus they fed us lunch which we ate with the mother of one of Adam's friends who is also going to be in the program in the fall. We also walked all over campus so we could see the farm, the creek, and the big central fountain. Then we met Daniel when he finished work for the day and went out for Mexican food with him, leaving Adam for the dorm sleepover which included a chance to use the rec center that has the climbing wall, a selling point for the university!


McKeldin Library at the top of the hill above the fountain in the center of campus.


Adam and two friends from school whom he met at the orientation.


A Fear the Turtle statue I had never seen before -- at one time there were several dozen such decorated statues on campus, and now there are eight.


Here I am with the Kermit the Frog statue, a.k.a. Kertle.


There are also several bronze terrapin statues on campus. I believe the one in front of McKeldin Library is the original, though it might be the one by the stadium (stolen by UVA fans at one point). This one is in the student union.


Here are the orientation students doing some kind of school spirit exercise after lunch.


And here are Daniel and myself at Azteca, which has excellent salsa and cheese enchiladas.

I only saw the World Cup game in bits, since guests can't get onto the university wi-fi so trying to stream ESPN on my phone ate my battery and I could only sneak out to the coffee shop so many times to watch on the big screen. If the US team could not win, at least they got lucky (more than the Nationals could say in their game against the Cubs -- the Orioles won last night in the 12th). When we got home and rescued the cats from their all-day starvation, by which we mean their dishes were still 1/3 full but the food was stale, we watched more Orphan Black -- Rachel uttered what must surely be the series' theme, "Nurture prevails." What will we do two episodes from now when we're all out and have to wait a year?

Poem for Thursday and Canal Wildlife

America
By Claude McKay

Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,
And sinks into my throat her tiger's tooth,
Stealing my breath of life, I will confess
I love this cultured hell that tests my youth!
Her vigor flows like tides into my blood,
Giving me strength erect against her hate.
Her bigness sweeps my being like a flood.
Yet as a rebel fronts a king in state,
I stand within her walls with not a shred
Of terror, malice, not a word of jeer.
Darkly I gaze into the days ahead,
And see her might and granite wonders there,
Beneath the touch of Time's unerring hand,
Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand.

--------

Quickie because I have to get up crazy early to go to College Park for Adam's orientation overnight (he stays over, we do not, though we are going to what will undoubtedly be repetitive meetings and having lunch with other parents before having dinner with Daniel). I had chores to do on Wednesday morning, then I took Adam to Giant to get ice cream to bring with him when then he went to watch to watch the World Cup with friends, and I went to AC Moore to use my one-day 50% off coupon on marbles and letter beads.

When I got home, I made a Washington Nationals bracelet since I didn't have one, repaired a ring that had lost a fake ruby stone, and used the marbles for my pagan wall of squee (since I have a fannish corner of squee, I need one of those too). Then I went for a brief walk to see the bunnies (the frog was hiding), had dinner, watched the Deep Space Nine episode I need to review this week because I have lots to do the next two days, and watched more Orphan Black! C&O Canal animals we saw last month:

Poem for Wednesday and MD Zoo Lion Cubs

Why Nobody Pets the Lion at the Zoo
By John Ciardi

The morning that the world began
The Lion growled a growl at Man.

And I suspect the Lion might
(If he’d been closer) have tried a bite.

I think that’s as it ought to be
And not as it was taught to me.

I think the Lion has a right
To growl a growl and bite a bite.

And if the Lion bothered Adam,
He should have growled right back at ’im.

The way to treat a Lion right
Is growl for growl and bite for bite.

True, the Lion is better fit
For biting than for being bit.

But if you look him in the eye
You’ll find the Lion’s rather shy.

He really wants someone to pet him.
The trouble is: his teeth won’t let him.

He has a heart of gold beneath
But the Lion just can’t trust his teeth.

--------

Tuesday was the quietest primary election day I ever remember -- we were literally the only people voting when we arrived, and with over 50% of votes in, the Republicans are saying that only about 4% of eligible voters showed up to choose their nominee for governor (this is probably because 2/3 of registered voters in my state are Democrats, so the Democratic primary has far more influence on who ends up in office). Primary apathy in non-presidential election years runs deep; even my own kids have no faith that local politicians can make a difference. So far I have seen no unpleasant surprises but all the votes haven't been counted.

Apart from going to the kids' elementary school to vote and seeing several bunnies and a frog while walking around the neighborhood, my day did not have a lot of excitement. Adam went to play mini-golf and out to dinner with friends, and the rest of us watched the first three episodes of the second season of Orphan Black (how are we going to wait till the third season after we binge the rest?). Here are the lion cubs at the Maryland Zoo, Luke and Leia, who lost their mom to infection when they were a few days old so they were hand-raised, and Zuri, who came from the Miami Zoo when her mother rejected her after losing two other cubs:

Poem for Tuesday, Maryland Zoo Swimming Elephants, Restaurant Crisis

Sky Burial
By Ron Koertge

Q. You're Such a Disciplined Writer. Were You Always That way?

A. When I was in graduate school, I worked part-time at a local library. I ran the used bookstore in the basement. The money came in handy. There was plenty of time to study.

I learned to know the regulars who talked about living with pain and waiting for bland meals to be delivered.

One sweltering afternoon I read about Tibetan body breakers who dismember corpses with their hatchets and flaying knives so the vultures will have an easier time.

I imagined my own body and the monks asking, "What did this one do?" And the answer would be, "Not much." As the hand I could have written with flew away from the wrist.

--------

On Monday, Adam and I were victims of a horrible trend occurring in our region. We had stopped at the bank, then at the local rec center (which, back in the day, was my elementary school) so Adam could buy a summer gym membership with a friend, watching some World Cup soccer while we waited for the paperwork. Then we headed to Ambrosia for lunch, because I have been craving their tyropitas and fire feta for three weeks...only to discover that it was CLOSED. Apparently its last day was Saturday, just like the Invertebrate House at the National Zoo.

This trend MUST STOP. First it was Tyson's Buffet, the Chinese restaurant with an entire table of vegetarian options. Then it was Vince & Dominic's pizza, the only pizza I really love in the entire state. Is a higher power trying to tell me to go on a diet, and if so, why is everyone else in the region being punished? It isn't working anyway, since we ended up going to Tara Thai and having Thai iced tea with our pad see ew and panang tofu! Then we stopped at Target, where Adam found some shirts and I got laundry supplies and mouthwash.

We finished binging the first season of Orphan Black (around this week's Beauty and the Beast, which made us realize that we had missed last week's Beauty and the Beast, but it was not difficult to catch up except in a "Wow, Gabe really IS crazy this time, not faking it" sense). Orphan Black may be the best thing on TV; I'm not sure it's as well-acted or written overall as The Americans, but Tatiana Maslany's performances are truly incredible -- I keep forgetting it's one actor! Elephants swimming and playing at the Maryland Zoo: