By J. D. McClatchy
HORACE IV. i
It's over, love. Look at me pushing fifty now,
Hair like grave-grass growing in both ears,
The piles and boggy prostate, the crooked penis,
The sour taste of each day's first lie,
And that recurrent dream of years ago pulling
A swaying bead-chain of moonlight,
Of slipping between the cool sheets of dark
Along a body like my own, but blameless.
What good's my cut-glass conversation now,
Now I'm so effortlessly vulgar and sad?
You get from life what you can shake from it?
For me, it's g and t's all day and CNN.
Try the blond boychick lawyer, entry level
At eighty grand, who pouts about overtime,
Keeps Evian and a beeper in his locker at the gym,
And hash in tinfoil under the office fern.
There's your hound from heaven, with buccaneer
Curls and perfumed war-paint on his nipples.
His answering machine always has room for one more
Slurred, embarrassed call from you-know-who.
Some nights I've laughed so hard the tears
Won't stop. Look at me now. Why now?
I long ago gave up pretending to believe
Anyone's memory will give as good as it gets.
So why these stubborn tears? And why do I dream
Almost every night of holding you again,
Or at least of diving after you, my long-gone,
Through the bruised unbalanced waves?
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My Monday was mostly about thrilling things like writing an article and laundry, though the weather was too nice to be indoors all day, so I went to Cabin John Park and did two Rayquaza raids before all of the Pokemon Day Pikachu started appearing in their little birthday hats. There are crocuses in the park and daffodils in my neighborhood, and snowdrops both places, so I am going to believe spring is ahead of the groundhog's schedule!
We thought we missed an episode of Black Lightning during the Olympics, but when we went looking, we couldn't find one (FIOS wanted money for the most recent one, which was free on Roku, both in both cases we'd seen the episode). So we watched the last three episodes of the penultimate season of Bones, which did not end with a good episode to think about before bedtime! Here are some photos of Maymont in Richmond decorated for Valentine's Day:
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