Monday, March 18, 2013
Falling Squirrels and Mating Snakes
A good weekend and perfect weather leads to a workweek and seasonal change. The best of the weather is behind us, now, those perfect days of mild temperatures and clear, blue skies and sharp, cool nights. It is the week of spring rain that brings the mythical balminess of movie lore.
But I went out of my house and had people in, two things I've avoided much for some time. And, of course, having people in makes you see things with strange eyes and now everything must be fixed or replaced or thrown away. I suppose it should be thrilling. It was once. I bought the house from a widower in his eighties who said, "Old houses are for young people." I know now what he means.
And going out means some changes, too. The fluidity of life increases with age until it is a narrow rapid racing over rocks and fallen trees and you can never seem to paddle enough to keep the boat from twisting and turning. But a good boat and better equipment, you know, might let you run them again for a little while longer among the kids who simply swim along bobbing up and down, laughing.
I make too much of everything, though. My peers hardly understand. Peers. Hmm. Do I have any?
I think I'll take a walk now before work just to feel the day. I may not work much if I can possibly avoid it which I believe I can. I have an evaluation with my supervisor this week about which I am numb as I expect the worst. It hardly causes me anxiety. . . but that will surely come.
I haven't made a photo in a very long time. The studio sits unused. Perhaps I will be motivated to do some pictures again. I am thinking.
As I write, a squirrel just fell from the tree into the bushes and onto the ground right in front of my window. It reminds me that I saw two snakes mating on Friday. They were thin and about six feet long each. How do I know they were mating? Oh, I know such things. Cloacas and hemipenes. They crawled onto a piece of concrete driveway in the sun and began to curl and writhe. I was watching it happen across the street from the window of the Y. I almost brought strangers over to watch, but my reputation is probably already shaky enough without doing that.
Falling squirrels and mating snakes. It's something to think about.
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What a great image that will be in my head all day...falling squirrels and mating snakes! What are peers but those who stunt our growth?
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteSounds like Mad Spring. I love it. We are expecting some snow tomorrow. Ick. Maybe just a few inches but still. Snow. But I heard the red-winged blackbird in the marsh while walking the dogs yesterday so I know it won't be too long and I'm quite sure there is fucking going on everywhere in the 8 acres across the street. :)
A friend of mine told me just yesterday his cats were having sex right in front of him. Kitty Porn.
I feel like reading this poem this morning. And so I leave it here:
The River-Merchant's Wife
While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead
I played about the front gate, pulling flowers.
You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse,
You walked about my seat, playing with blue plums.
And we went on living in the village of Chokan:
Two small people, without dislike or suspicion.
At fourteen I married My Lord you.
I never laughed, being bashful.
Lowering my head, I looked at the wall.
Called to, a thousand times, I never looked back.
At fifteen I stopped scowling,
I desired my dust to be mingled with yours
Forever and forever and forever.
Why should I climb the look out?
At sixteen you departed,
You went into far Ku-to-en, by the river of swirling eddies,
And you have been gone five months.
The monkeys make sorrowful noise overhead.
You dragged your feet when you went out.
By the gate now, the moss is grown, the different mosses,
Too deep to clear them away!
The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind.
The paired butterflies are already yellow with August
Over the grass in the West garden;
They hurt me. I grow older.
If you are coming down through the narrows of the river Kiang,
Please let me know beforehand,
And I will come out to meet you
As far as Cho-fu-Sa.
Translated by Mr. Pound
R, That's good.
ReplyDeleteL, Likewise.