Poem for Saturday and Renfaire Art

Violence, I know you
By Khadijah Queen

so well it’s like you’re my real
lover, the reason I can’t stay
attached to anyone, making a heaven
out of beginning again & you
knock at my voice
as if I could speak you back in
as mine & I had time enough to learn
the secret of cruelty
as if that made it lose
its power over me, its antics
failing notice,

but it lives in us all like a question
we can’t answer but keep trying
because it feels good to & the secret
is it can’t last,
& that is when it hurts—
we
who can’t bear to lose &
stitch to any nothing
that acts like a landing place but turns
out to be a fissure, we pretend
voices tell us it’s music
& familiar or alien
we listen, it’s only a dance

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I did not get much done in the basement, but I sold $500 worth of Halloween and Hollywood Barbies on Friday without having to go to the post office to ship them, so it must be accounted a good day. I chatted quite a bit with a relative of my in-laws who found me via WikiTree -- she's Paul's second cousin once removed, so I think our kids' second cousin twice removed? -- and she knows a lot about his family, which is very cool. I also chatted with my sister's oldest, who is working on a play in which Jewish ancestry plays a big role, so it was a very family history sort of day, including at dinner with my parents. 

We spent the evening watching the new episode of Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which I am loving. I only remember The Silmarillion and most of HOME in broad strokes, so I'm probably the perfect audience, in that I get excited when Earendil's backstory comes up but I don't get upset if they made some changes, and I love how much of it is focused on women in Arda when there have barely been women talking to each other in the movies, even though several of the major female characters had daughters and companions so there's no reason for that. Here are some awesome crafts from the Maryland Renfaire: