Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Wednesday poetry break

Late getting to posting today because the past 24 hours have been crazy. Actually, it all started at 4:30 am yesterday when I was blasted out of a deep sleep by someone leaving a loud message on the answering machine about picking up a dumpster. For the record, I do not have dumpster. Never have. But the caller was so loud and intense that we all woke up and the dog started barking, and well, not a good way to start the day.

Next up was the weather. An ice storm here in the DC area caused traffic jams of epic proportions. It took me over 3 and half hours to go 40 miles. Then I slid to the polling place and voted. For Hillary Clinton. Who lost in Maryland. And DC. And Virginia.

You may sense some weariness, perhaps even cynicism, in today's poem.

Subject To Change

A reflection on my students

They are so beautiful, and so very young
they seem almost to glitter with perfection,
these creatures that I briefly move among.

I never get to stay with them for long,
but even so, I view them with affection:
they are so beautiful, and so very young.

Poised or clumsy, placid or high-strung,
they're expert in the art of introspection,
these creatures that I briefly move among—

And if their words don't quite trip off the tongue
consistently, with just the right inflection,
they remain beautiful. And very young.

Still, I have to tell myself it's wrong
to think of them as anything but fiction,
these creatures that I briefly move among—

Because, like me, they're traveling headlong
in that familiar, vertical direction
that coarsens beautiful, blackmails young—
the two delusions we all move among.

— Marilyn Taylor

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