Poem for Wednesday and Locust Grove

With Passing Wonder I Notice the Tracks of an Animal
By David Biespiel

It comes out of the language of nothing I recognize
Though it is something in you, at least as I keep
                        looking at you
And you turn back to me. I ought to have guessed
From the simple order of the tracks that you knew
Without looking what place in the wild night
The animal came from,
                        and through which of our windows
It has looked into, sometimes with an eye
On our waking, other times on our sleeping
                        with the doorways open
Where, I suppose, the spirits of the defeated
Appear, white as lakes, carrying maps to someplace
Ahead of us, running now, and now you running,
And the animals guiding your footsteps,
Like a flake of snow,
You, without a single acquaintance among the spirits,
Or understanding, you so solitary in your running.
                        And then the return—
And I assume you have nothing to say
And that if I wait there'll be only the waiting
Then nothing but a moment of darkness
And a surprising order stirring in the head
Shaking off the early morning cold.
Then all at once a door closing,
                        an hour of answerless letting go
Like a last hammer of blue sky
Cracking the light.

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It wasn't Super Tuesday in Maryland -- well, I mean, it was, but our primary isn't until the end of April, so we weren't voting. We did have spectacular weather, so much so that when Paul was done working, I insisted that instead of walking in the neighborhood, we should walk in Cabin John Park. This had the dual advantage of letting us see flying geese and bushes starting to bud plus letting us not see the news endlessly covering the primaries before the votes had even started to be tallied.

















As you can see, we saw one of the local bunnies too, which was a relief because we thought we saw one hit by a car the other night. We caught up on John Oliver's show at lunchtime, and in the evening watched some Bones since Flash wasn't on plus what's likely to be the last-ever Agent Carter, which had so many levels of meh that I can't even bring myself to be sorry -- I will always love the character, but she deserved a show that was so much better than the one they gave us.