Thursday, January 19, 2023

Poem for Thursday and Hillwood Winter

Falling Peacock in Rainstorm at Night
By Peg Boyers

My tail of colored feathers
hangs matted
closed behind me

It weighs me down

In this wet darkness
I can neither
dance nor fly

This darkness
weighs me down

No one here
to see my splendor

My only company
the relentless rain  

Together
we fall from the sky
toward the darkening wood

The leafy trees below
reach out to catch me
but cannot    

Between their outstretched
limbs I travel
like a stone

The swallows
sitting safely in their nests
sleep the sleep of the oblivious
innocent
of cellular divisions
silent metastasis

Their oblivion weighs me down     

Only the insomniac owl
watches     ever alert
for the kill

My famous feathery tail-eyes
are folded inward
blind to possibility

I am falling         falling away—
escaping at last
this monsoon sickness

sing me a raga        spin
me a garland
oh earth
but do not yet welcome me

Show me the sun.

-------- 

I had a surprisingly social Wednesday -- talked to Linda, Hildy, and Kay at lunchtime, and watched the first third of The Fellowship of the Ring with Kristen (whom I met because of LOTR fandom) in the late afternoon.  In between, I did a bunch of house chores and we went to Cabin John Park to take a walk and enjoy the sunset before getting Lebanese Taverna for dinner.

We watched this week's National Treasure -- which is as silly as ever, since where it would take Ben Gates three tries to solve any given riddle, it only takes Jess one -- then we watched some more first season White Lotus, which I somehow thought would be wittier or more incisive or something; at least the cast is better than the writing. Hillwood outdoors a couple of weeks ago:

2023-01-01 16.29.32

2023-01-01 16.36.13

2023-01-01 16.33.32

2023-01-01 15.14.55

2023-01-01 15.15.55

2023-01-01 16.29.58

2023-01-01 15.09.51

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