By Louis Untermeyer
(Vienna)
I
Shut out the light or let it filter through
These frowning aisles as penitentially
As though it walked in sackcloth. Let it be
Laid at the feet of all that ever grew
Twisted and false, like this rococo shrine
Where cupids smirk from candy clouds and where
The Lord, with polished nails and perfumed hair,
Performs a parody of the divine.
The candles hiss; the organ-pedals storm;
Writhing and dark, the columns leave the earth
To find a lonelier and darker height.
The church grows dingy while the human swarm
Struggles against the impenitent body’s mirth.
Ashes to ashes. . . . Go. . . . Shut out the light.
(Hinterbrühl)
II
And so the light runs laughing from the town,
Pulling the sun with him along the roads
That shed their muddy rivers as he goads
Each blade of grass the ice had flattened down.
At every empty bush he stops to fling
Handfuls of birds with green and yellow throats;
While even the hens, uncertain of their notes,
Stir rusty vowels in attempts to sing.
He daubs the chestnut-tips with sudden reds
And throws an olive blush on naked hills
That hoped, somehow, to keep themselves in white.
Who calls for sackcloth now? He leaps and spreads
A carnival of color, gladly spills
His blood: the resurrection—and the light.
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I spent a ridiculous amount of Tuesday shopping, which I did not intend -- we were going to run Maddy to Hot Topic in Gaithersburg briefly after a stop at the organic market in Rockville, and then get cat food. But we wound up in a bunch of stores in the mall with her, and ate Indian food there, then we remembered things we needed at Target, and by the time we got to CVS and Giant, I was fried!
So pretty much nothing got worked on or cleaned up or organized, though at least I have hair stuff. Paul made gumbo for Mardi Gras and we watched The Flash (too much Gorilla City for me) and the beginning of the second season of Billions (still no really likeable characters, even The Young Pope is a nicer person). Since it's Ash Wednesday, some photos of Marseille's Basilique Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde:
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