Yer Sercret Larnguage.

Daily has devolved into monthly. Or perhaps its evolved. I could make some philosophical argument for outgrowing the need for verbal communication. But I'll save that for when I bother to upload some cute photos of the new kitty, eh?

Before I do anything else, I am going to plug National Public Radio, with which I admittedly have a rather tumultuous relationship. However, my love for North Carolina Public Radio's "The Story" is unadulterated. It's a romance of convenience; it happens to air at 2:00 pm weekdays on VPR, which is when I drive to Bellows Falls Middle School for the afterschool program. It's not a long commute, so I never catch a whole episode, although sometimes I'll sit in the car once I've parked it to see a segment all the way through. One such segment was January 3rd's "Time for a Change," which featured farmer and writer Shannon Hayes. Never has the media so eloquently addressed the (not necessarily conflicting) pulls of the intellectual life and the agricultural life. Y'all should go listen to this show. It is, dare I say it, inspirational.


Cold Comfort
or, Taking Notes

The cows stand
exactly where you left them.
The jersey's purple slug tongue
reaches for your hand.
Only the whitetailed does move,
browsing fogflung groves
and bolting at your footfall,
at your breath.

Not a bird calls. January.
The sun, when it comes,
hits at odd gaunt angles.
Your projects are no longer yours.
You've shuffled and shunted your belongings
so many times, you've learned
to keep the important stuff
well-hidden, salient chaos,
delicious morass.

Come night, the wind
will clear the fog out.
Wind does not look back.

Someday you will go
to the forlorn brown field
and build a fire there of brush
and cherrywood and birch.

For now, watch chimneys breathe
heat rippling against bare hills.
The road raises clouds
you believe to be fog--
it's dustier than January should be.

An owl slaloms through spruces.
Black dog at the mailbox ambles home.
The everpresent hum of man too much to bear.
Ash and dust gather on sparse snow.

Someday you will find
a ledge grown over
with juniper and vetch.
Into it you'll build
an earthen house
and keep your fire there.


PS:  Just for fun, try adding an "rr" sound to as many vowels as possible when you speak.