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: