Summon it Up

Closing many doors
Closing many doors
To keep the germs from getting out
To keep the germs from getting in

So that my emotional arrows
Will all fall short of their mark
Fall short of their mark

To keep the milk of human kindness
To keep the milk of human kindness
From getting in
From getting in
From getting in
From getting in

April 26

After 1000 years of almost unrelenting tragedy, how did the Russians manage to salvage their joie de vivre?

April 25

There'll be the breaking of the ancient Western code
Your private life will suddenly explode
There'll be phantoms
There'll be fires on the road

And the white man dancing...

You'll see your woman hanging upside down
Her features covered by her fallen gown
And all the lousy little poets
Coming round
Tryin' to sound like Charlie Manson
And the white man dancin'

April 24

Speak, Boris, speak!

If I had the courage, and the money, and the skill, now would be a good time to kiss the crests of the Andes in a glider.   The path forward would be pocked with peril, but at least there would be a path forward, and most likely a gentle touchdown spot in the offing.

April 23

Si je t'aime, prends garde a toi.
Si tu m'aimes, prends garde a toi.

April 22

Kim Jong Un reported to be recuperating from emergency heart surgery.   Where is that MyPillow guy when you need him?

April 21

The cruise ship and its offspring, including the Penobscot windjammer.   The nail salon.  The Irish pub.   The health club and the comedy club.  The roller coaster.  The convention center, holding a convention as opposed to holding overflow medical equipment.  Tell your kids that they will be able to read about them in books.

April 20

Maybe a good time to remind ourselves that the value of money rests entirely upon consensus and convention.  If the consensus falls apart...

April 19

It's a still-life watercolor of a now late afternoon,
As the sun shines through the curtain lace
And shadows wash the room.

April 18

We found a cowskull once; we thought it was
From one of the asses in the Bible, for the sun
Shone into the holes through which it had seen
Earth as an endless belt carrying gravel.

April 17

"There's a kind of hush all over the world tonight."  

-- Vinny and the Ventilators

April 16

The pope, washing the feet of the poor, in latex gloves, color coded to the liturgical calendar.

April 15

The birds awaken now at 4AM.

Is there a way to quantify all human, physical contact?  (I mean everything from a handshake to a high five to a rugby scrum to sexual congress.)  What then is the deficit in human contact that we have suffered globally over the last four weeks?  And if that number is X, what will it be on New Years Eve, 2021?

The deficit will not be made up.  "It deepens, like a coastal shelf."  Will there be a cost to the collective human psyche?  Is this the global catastrophe that Carl Jung foresaw, vividly, before his death?

April 14

Peak or plateau?

April 13

The Great Boston Molasses Disaster of the early 20th century.  Some were unable to outrun the wall of molasses.  I no doubt would have been among them.  A sticky situation it would have been.  No one, back then, accused the molasses of invidious discrimination.

April 12, Easter Sunday

The voice of the Queen is remarkably strong; her words are chosen with royal simplicity, royal precision.

The fingers, of God and Man, over the Sistine Chapel, never to touch.

April 11

Long, unbroken periods in sensory deprivation chambers flood the mind with all manner of phantasmogorica.  I saw butterflies with talons, and babies with the teeth of dogs.

April 10

Sam, the Sam in "Casablanca" I mean, was wrong about a kiss.  It's not just a kiss.  It satisfies an impulse, a physical and emotional urge, for sure.  But it's also and most importantly a gesture in and of itself -- a sign.   "The Kiss of Death."

When next we meet, you will be wearing the uniform of The Bandit Princess!  We shall not embrace.  We won't even acknowledge our longing to embrace, for we won't be equipped to give it expression.  It will be as if a prison visit, with three inches of hostile plexiglas between us.  

And this when the crisis is past.

April 9

Variety is the spice of life.

April 8

Chinese school has now begun.
No more laughing, no more fun!
If you show your teeth or tongue
You must pay a forfeit.

April 7

Reach out your hand
If your cup be empty.
If your cup is full, may it be again.
Let it be known -
There is a fountain that was not made by the hands of men.

April 6

From out of the city the dying groan,
And the soul of the wounded cries for help;
Yet God pays no attention to their prayer.

April 5

In Christ there is no East or West.

April 4

If we need to free up space in the Big Dictionary for the now ubiquitous word -- "coronavirus" -- we can excise one of equal size that we won't need anymore -- "insouciance."

April 3

All flesh is grass.

April 2

A mighty fortress is our God
His power all prevailing.

April 1

The collection of nightsoil on the usual, systematic basis having been determined to be too dangerous in current conditions, the government of North Korea has begun to use human bodies as fertilizer.