Poem for Thursday, Washingtonian, The Zookeeper's Wife

Testimony
By Joseph Fasano

If tonight the moon should arrive like a lost guide
crossing the fields with a bitter lantern in her hand,

her irides blind, her dresses wild, lie down and listen to her
find you; lie down and listen to the body become

the promise of no other, the sleeper in the garden
in its own arms, the exile in its own autumnal house.

You have woken. But no one has woken. You are changed,
but the light of change is bitter, the changing

is the threshold into winter. Traveler, rememberer, sleeper,
tonight, as you slumber where the dead are, if the moon’s hands

should discover you through fire, lie down
and listen to her hold you, the moon who has been away

so long now, the lost moon with her silver lips
and whisper, her body half in winter,

half in wool. Look at her, look at her, that drifter.
And if no one, if nothing comes to know you, if no song

comes to prove it isn’t over, tell yourself, in the moon’s
arms, she is no one; tell yourself, as you lose

love, it is after, that you alone are the bearer
in that changed place, you alone who have woken, and have

opened, you alone who can so love
what you are now and the vanishing that carries it away.

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On Wednesday morning, while Adam was at the first day of the computer conference that was his excuse for going to Greece though he still got lunch overlooking the sea, Alice came over and we went to Ted's Bulletin for homemade pop tarts and milkshakes (well, and also eggs for me and bacon for her and hash browns for both of us), all of which were great. Then we walked around Washingtonian Lake, saw the geese, stopped in Charming Charlie and Kohl's, and I found out she's never seen Master and Commander so I know what we're doing next time!













In the afternoon I did more cleaning and organizing, stopped at CVS, and did my PT exercises. We had chick'n with pineapple for the summer solstice, then we watched The Zookeeper's Wife, which I really can't say that I liked -- way too many horrible things happen to people and animals alike, though it's bizarre to me how many people have an easier time with Nazis murdering Jews than with Nazis shooting camels. Chastain is pretty good but they've made her up to look much too perfect too much of the time; the zookeeper himself makes a more memorable impression.