Poem for Monday and Mount Vernon Fair

Memory
By Heather McHugh

Whatever I am taught,
let me remember it.
When the big fish comes out of the water
we can see the bottom of the pond.
When the big toad comes out of the water
we can see the bottom of the well.
When the kingfisher dives into the water
his brain becomes clear.
When the cheek of the pregnant antelope was marked
her child was also marked.
If there is one piece of meat left in the pot
it will surely be taken by the spoon.
Everything the landlord does
is known to the swallow.
Everything that is in your brain,
my father,
let it be known to me.

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I had a very nice afternoon at Mount Vernon's annual Colonial Fair -- 18th century crafts, strolling musicians, pewter jewelry, homemade food and soaps, weapons demonstrations -- but I am rushing because I can't figure out how in Open Office to replace paragraph marks, which is driving me crazy (the new computer doesn't have MSWord, and still won't install the Microsoft service pack, which is driving me crazier). We drove down at 11 a.m., ate lunch, met Cheryl, went to see the sword swallower and militia reenactment, then met up with my parents and had chocolate croissants!















After a few hours at the fair, we went inside to the museums and stopped in the gift shops before we all went our separate ways. We had missed the entirety of the Ravens game but it's quite enough for me that they won! As often happens when we're at Mount Vernon, we were in the mood for peanut soup, which we had for dinner, then we watched football highlights and the beginning of the Panthers-Steelers game before Masters of Sex came on -- the football delay for Madame Secretary this week and probably every week means we'll watch On Demand if it winds up being good enough to follow.