Lions and tigers and bears

OH MY! It has been weeks since I've posted. My schedule has gotten the best of me and I've been too tired and frustrated to blog. But I will...soon.

The Frog Prince

 

This is how it was that year, after four thousand

winters by the pond.  My brothers falling

from the Egyptian sky.  Bearing the blame

of skin disfigurations for a century.  Knees added

to witches’ broths with incantations.  The jelly

of our blood thickening lakewater.  I witness my misery

reflected in the mirrored eyes of a fly.

If you could have seen

my skin flashing celery-green in the

underwater of mornings, expertly

picking through the most delicate of mosquitoes

and minnows for my table. 

Four thousand and one winters. Surely

now you understand my coldness.

I’ve burrowed through the tangles

of your hair for the last time, dug

into that small frog-space, waited

to feel a breath of kindness from you.

Waited for you to take me under your

sheets, or warm me with your mouth. 

When you wake you’ll find I’ve

left like a thief, taking your precious

golden ball, your silk gloves, the claw-foot

bathtub.

What I did over summer vacation

I worked at the Graduate College, I went to New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas (drove through the Mojave Desert from LA to Vegas),presented research at the American Sociological Association's annual meeting, I got an acceptance from ASA's Contexts magazine, I read approximately 10 books of fiction, I finished the antique buffet that had been sitting in the garage. I did *not* brush up on my Spanish (although I did take the baby step of putting one CD on my iPod, then promptly skipped the lessons whenever they popped up), nor did I make vanilla.

The Spanish will just have to wait. I need a class or something, most likely. Or I should start watching telenovellas obsessively. The vanilla I am starting on TODAY! I have the vodka, I'm going down to the new health food place to find vanilla beans. So hopefully I'll have several cute bottles of vanilla in time for Christmas.

I had hoped to get much more done, but I'm fairly happy.