By Robert P. Baird
Torn turned and tattered
Bowed burned and battered
I took untensed time by the teeth
And bade it bear me banking
Out over the walled welter
cities and the sea
Through the lightsmocked birdpocked cloudcocked sky
To leave me light on a lilting planetesimal.
The stone walls wailed and whimpered
The bold stars paled and dimpled
Godgone time gathered to a grunt
And bore me bled and breaking
On past parted palisades
windrows and the trees
Over a windcloaked nightsoaked starpoked sea
To drop me where? Deep in a decadent’s dream.
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Tuesday was Paul's 50th birthday, which is crazy -- neither of us has any idea how we got so old, even though Daniel and Adam reassure us regularly that we are. He worked from home, so we had lunch together (don't get excited, it was just sandwiches and faux chicken soup, since he has had a cold since we were in France, though we had some chocolate that my friend from London had brought us). I still have laundry to fold, but the photos have been uploaded to Flickr and to Shutterfly so I can make a book with the coupon Laurie gave me before it expires this weekend!
In the late afternoon we went to College Park to get Paul a Terps sweatshirt, which was one of the things he wanted for his birthday. Adam and Christine came to meet us at the bookstore, then we picked up Daniel and all went to the Silver Diner in Greenbelt, for which we also had a coupon. I had eggs benedict and a chocolate milkshake. We came home to watch Forever (and Agents of SHIELD, which seems to have jumped the shark while we were out of town -- Skye is now being compared to Captain America? It was bad enough when she was being compared to Asgardians).
Here are some photos of the Basilique Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres a.k.a. Chartres Cathedral, which had long been at the top of my must-see list in France because of the labyrinth and because it's been around since about 1200 (it was saved during World War II by Americans who refused to destroy it before confirming whether the Germans were using it for local headquarters, which the Germans were not). The coronation of Henri de Navarre, who became Henri IV of France, took place here, and the church has beautiful carvings and gorgeous stained glass that was cleaned and replaced last century.
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