By Erika Meitner
Hand-painted on the side
of a shack we pass
on the road to Ohio:
what this world comin to?
This is not haiku. This
is more like fog and we’re
socked in and your body
is invisible and right
across from me
simultaneously.
How much ammo you got?
says one guy to another
in the cola-chip aisle
of the Food Lion.
The fortitude of rain
hitting the roof:
percussive sadness.
Almost-saved is not
good enough, says
the church sign. We are
out of ketchup again.
Did you see what he
put on Pete’s grave and
what he put on Junior’s?
says the woman in
the Bob Evans bath-
room stall with a cane.
It was sprained, not
broken. From high up,
from far away.
He was still working
at that bar in town,
after all these years,
assigned to a circum-
scribed position, like
the supermoon, like
employee parking.
In the dark 7-Eleven lot
two officers approach
a white van, flashlights on
and held overhand.
The church sign says
living without God
is like dribbling a football.
The light—it was
too bright to be captured
in an iPhone photo
where people are not
the urgency of the
present moment.
Did you get it squared
away? asks one man to
another at the Starbucks
condiment counter.
One of the officers
has a hand on his
holster. What is he
saying to the driver?
The church sign touts
tonight's sermon: Entering
the Miraculous Zone.
There were no grounds
for prosecution. I left
before I heard
the answer.
--------
Cheryl and I had a nice relaxing Monday ignoring the world! (Well, she did have to deal with driving to DC in the rain and wind, but after that!) We went out to get Lebanese Taverna, then we came home and ate it while watching this season finale of The Crown, and then we went to see Hidden Figures, which was just as awesome the second time. It's a nearly perfect film -- it may not have the indie vibe of Moonlight, but it has superb lead actors and even the minor characters are well developed, not just advancing the story. Plus it has lots of humor among the drama.
Since it was a rainy day, we decided we might as well do a double-header, so we also saw Silence. It's very well-acted, but I didn't love it. You'd think a movie set in Japan could present a single Japanese individual who's both admirable and a fully developed person rather than a plot device to inspire white priests. You'd also think that a movie with a Buddhist Inquisitor could make some single mention of the Catholic Church's history of both Inquisition and ignoring the rights of indigenous peoples in the places priests proselytized during the epoch of this film.
It was already dark when Cheryl went home, at which time we took Maddy to the mall to meet up with friends and came home ourselves for Supergirl (not bad, but I still miss Cat so much) and Timeless (pretty good, often a little preachy, could also use more humor). Now we're watching The Daily Show, which is subjecting me to more of the inauguration than I saw during or after it happened thus far, and the kittens are fighting for couch and lap space by aggressively grooming each other. Randomly, here are some photos from last fall of birds at the National Zoo, resident and visitors:
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