Before and Every After
By Marianne Boruch
—in memory
Eventually one dreams the real thing.
The cave as it was, what we paid to straddle
one skinny box-turned-seat down the middle, narrow boat
made special for the state park, the wet, the tricky
passing into rock and underground river.
A single row of strangers faced front, each of us
behind another close
as dominoes to fall or we were angels lined up
politely, pre-flight, like that was
a coffin we rode, the go-to, take-out end of it,
a shipping container for a giant.
Now every after—
Not to embellish, but I count the ice age in this story
since its grinding made that cave.
I count us too, as mourners.
A smart, full-of-fun-facts park ranger poled us
past summer. A cool which meant dark, meaning
I pictured the giant in life before
he lay down in that boat
under the blood in us, under our breathing.
Upright, his long bones
and knobby joints. He slouched in a doorway
smoking cigarettes, talking What-Would-Bertram-Russell-Do
kindly and funny to the dumb
all of us who adored him, not dream and then dream.
Repeatedly, that thing about us adoring him.
The ranger pointed out the obvious
spare mob scene of caves: the endless drip to make
a stalactite, tiny crawfish and frogs transparent, hearts
by flashlight, visibly beating away.
We got quiet drifting deeper.
What does it mean, something over and over
with your eyes shut?
I remember us from before too,
from museums. I love us there still, the same
us, the way the ancient Egyptians kept their dead
safe crossing over, smallish
intricate models—who they were and even
their sorrow to scale—those
rowing tireless to the other side.
A boat the length of my forearm, faces
to freeze like that
forward, released, the blankest wonder though I think
we came back. Of course he did not
and could not, the giant I made up
for the passage. But all night, how the whole dream
grateful I was to others
patient, more steely practical with
things sacred, who took the real one across
hours before we got there.
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Apparently it is true that sugar ants don't like peppermint! Suddenly they're not on the power strip or lamp cord! So that is a win! They can have the house after the monkeypox epidemic wipes us out, not before. Honestly, I understand why people would rather read about Johnny and Amber's nightmare relationship than any relevant news of the nation or the world. I stuck with chores and bird-watching.
It was quite warm out when we walked, and getting hotter -- this weekend is supposed to be miserable. I had a lot of photos to upload, so I did that and some writing. We had sausage and pasta for dinner, then watched the end of the first season of Schmigadoon! around my usual Thursday night chat group -- they had other Apple TV suggestions for me. Some of the frogs we saw at the canal last weekend:
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