By Jack Gilbert
Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.
It's the same when love comes to an end,
or the marriage fails and people say
they knew it was a mistake, that everybody
said it would never work. That she was
old enough to know better. But anything
worth doing is worth doing badly.
Like being there by that summer ocean
on the other side of the island while
love was fading out of her, the stars
burning so extravagantly those nights that
anyone could tell you they would never last.
Every morning she was asleep in my bed
like a visitation, the gentleness in her
like antelope standing in the dawn mist.
Each afternoon I watched her coming back
through the hot stony field after swimming,
the sea light behind her and the huge sky
on the other side of that. Listened to her
while we ate lunch. How can they say
the marriage failed? Like the people who
came back from Provence (when it was Provence)
and said it was pretty but the food was greasy.
I believe Icarus was not failing as he fell,
but just coming to the end of his triumph.
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My cat Effie was in a very affectionate mood on Wednesday. She did not want to let me get out of bed in the morning, so I stayed and snuggled her for nearly an hour, and when I went to fold laundry in the late afternoon, she flopped on top of it and demanded attention. So I was not super-productive, though I had a nice afternoon with Maddy -- took her to a medical appointment and then out to lunch at Lebanese Taverna with stops at the Hallmark store and toy store in Congressional just because we could.
We watched The Flash, which needs to stop dragging its season-long Big Bad storylines out absurdly, and Black Lightning, which did not have enough Anissa this week but is generally wonderful, plus we watched the Team Thor videos because I discovered I could hook Movies Anywhere up to my Roku though I still can't screen mirror. Here are the Ellicott City B&O Railroad Station Museum holiday model train displays, including the huge two-level Lego train exhibit with Ghostbusters, Scooby Doo, and Jurassic World:
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