Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Poem for Tuesday and American History

Elsa Is Involved in a Clandestine Love Affair
By Angela Veronica Wong

There is no fixed place and by that I mean
take a look at things that are. Split by the
turn of year, its newness and all it brings,
which of its possibilities can we trust?
Elsa is involved in a clandestine
love affair which, let’s be honest, should be
all love affairs until they’re over. She finds
herself dreaming of children and many
other delicacies. Sugared eggs. A
lost palace. But night brings a great expanse
and it’s much too quiet in these hallways.
On her back, Elsa holds her breath, her hands
beneath her, resisting, resisting. That
temptation can be such a dirty rat.

--------

The poet told Poets.org that this poem is from a series of sonnets about a fictional mistress of Louis XV exploring gender and colonialism, but I don't believe for a single second that we're not supposed to hear Disney and Frozen in the lost palace and dangerous hands.

Paul needed to go downtown for clearance and security checks that some of his potential employers require, so since I needed to be awake early anyway to get Adam to NIH for the first day of his internship there, I drove into DC with him. While he was getting fingerprinted and dealing with paperwork, I went to the Smithsonian's Museum of American History, where he eventually met me. We went to several of our favorite exhibits, including the Gunboat Philadelphia and the Machine Age, as well as the new one on Japanese-American internment camps during World War II. Then we went to the Reagan Building's food court for lunch, where we ate Mediterranean food and I caught an Aerodactyl.

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The EPA from the front of the National Museum of American History

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George Washington as Greek god

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Brown Box prototype video game system

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Commercial ship replica from the start of the nautical exhibit...

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...and SS United States deluxe passenger cabin items from near the end

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Me and a Lego model of the Statue of Liberty

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An exhibit on Japanese-American prison camps during World War II

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From a Reagan Building exhibit on World War I, a British recruitment poster featuring George V

When we got home, we caught up on the weekend television we missed, namely the distressing season finale of Elementary and last week's Matrix-y Doctor Who. We went to pick up Adam, who had a long and very good day working out his research plans with the professor in whose lab he'll be working, and came home for leftover gumbo. In the evening we watched the season finale of Supergirl (not the best they've done this season but plenty of Cat, some Lena, and gratuitous Superman, so I was happy) and James Corden's prime time Carpool Karaoke special, plus another episode of Genius for Adam. Given both the local and international news these past two days, we needed distraction.

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