Poem for Friday, Washingtonian Goslings, Chloe

As I Walked Out One Evening
By W.H. Auden

As I walked out one evening,
   Walking down Bristol Street,
The crowds upon the pavement
   Were fields of harvest wheat.

And down by the brimming river
   I heard a lover sing
Under an arch of the railway:
   ‘Love has no ending.

‘I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you
   Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
   And the salmon sing in the street,

‘I’ll love you till the ocean
   Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
   Like geese about the sky.

‘The years shall run like rabbits,
   For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
   And the first love of the world.'

But all the clocks in the city
   Began to whirr and chime:
‘O let not Time deceive you,
   You cannot conquer Time.

‘In the burrows of the Nightmare
   Where Justice naked is,
Time watches from the shadow
   And coughs when you would kiss.

‘In headaches and in worry
   Vaguely life leaks away,
And Time will have his fancy
   To-morrow or to-day.

‘Into many a green valley
   Drifts the appalling snow;
Time breaks the threaded dances
   And the diver’s brilliant bow.

‘O plunge your hands in water,
   Plunge them in up to the wrist;
Stare, stare in the basin
   And wonder what you’ve missed.

‘The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
   The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
   A lane to the land of the dead.

‘Where the beggars raffle the banknotes
   And the Giant is enchanting to Jack,
And the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer,
   And Jill goes down on her back.

‘O look, look in the mirror,
   O look in your distress:
Life remains a blessing
   Although you cannot bless.

‘O stand, stand at the window
   As the tears scald and start;
You shall love your crooked neighbour
   With your crooked heart.'

It was late, late in the evening,
   The lovers they were gone;
The clocks had ceased their chiming,
   And the deep river ran on.

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We have three people in the house with things to do and only two vehicles, so today Paul worked from home so Adam and I could each have one. I am not entirely sure where Adam went before he went out for dinner and bowling in the evening -- I believe he was at a friend's and pizza was involved -- while I was at Washingtonian for Tara Thai with Kay, and then, since it was between rainstorms, to walk a bit around the lake to see the goslings. I also stopped in Charming Charlie for bargain jewelry and managed to trip over a one-inch curb on the way back to the van, doing hideous but hopefully not serious damage to my elbow.















When I got home, I folded laundry (watching World Cup and Teen Wolf -- I am just going to blame Kay and Tyler Hoechlin for the latter in perpetuity), took a walk to see the baby bunnies, then the two of us who were here had dinner and watched Chloe, in which Amanda Seyfried, Julianne Moore, and Liam Neeson did their best to give serious performances in what I must describe as a sexploitation film that I am not sure even passed the Bechdel Test, since Moore is obsessed with Neeson and their son while Seyfried never stops talking about the men in Moore's life to keep her attention. The lesbian scene, at least, is as hot as it was reputed to be!