Poem for Friday and Sophomore Move-In

Housesitting, Boston,
By Tony Trigilio

                            our first day,
a deer loitered outside the kitchen
window, chewing a clump of shrubs
in the parking lot between
their house and the commuter
rail tracks to the suburbs.
Furry ears, peach fuzz around
the antler tips, soft, dreary eyes—
afraid if I moved, I’d break the spell
of our ridiculous L.L. Bean tableau.
His legs tensed, ready to flee if I reached
for the dish soap or squeezed
the sponge too hard. We stared,
sized each other up: you are Nature—
either boring, like a robin posing
on the front lawn, or terrifying
(killer bees, tornadoes, the mysterious
cicada drone in my ears that began in this
moment, staring each other down).
I hate the grass and mosquitos—
in the Midwest, it’s never polite
to tell the truth, but I’m back East
now, where niceties waste everyone’s
time.  We’d just flown in and had lunch.
Liz took a photo.  I eventually looked
away and finished the dishes.

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After a hectic morning getting ready, we took Adam to College Park to start his sophomore year at the University of Maryland. Though he entered as a freshman planning to double major in finance and accounting, his brother, his two roommates, and his girlfriend, who are all engineers, have expanded his interests, and he's now planning to earn a dual degree in finance and computer engineering. He is working this weekend at the freshman orientation program in the business school, so he got to move in with most of the first-years. Here are some of the move-in sights, including the student union Testudo, a Terps sombrero, and the bees in the School of Public Health garden plus a Terrapin Trail bunny:

















As you can see, we had lunch with Adam in the student union, then he had training at the business school so we took the scenic walk through the woods to the Terrapin Trail Garage. We came home, finished up various work and chores, took a walk on which we saw six more bunnies, and had dinner with our relieved cats who had seen all the luggage in the morning and zoomed all over the house. I watched one of my favorite Voyager episodes from back in the day so I can review it -- nope, time has not killed it -- then we watched the Lewis Carroll episode of Inspector Lewis because the Orioles score was depressing and the 49ers weren't exciting us. The weather is gorgeous tonight, hoping it lasts this weekend!