This poem by Brian Komei Dempster is called “Glow.” It was the poem-a-day from Poets.org today. It’s about as painful as a poem can get. I’ll share what the poet said about it first, so you can brace yourself. (Or skip it — no one could blame you.)
“The loss of an unborn child is one of the most difficult things we may go through—an experience so painful that for some it remains a secret, unspoken and vaulted inside. This poem, kept private for many years, is shared now to honor the shape and contours of a life imagined, the afterglow of absence that stays with us long after the moment’s tragic reality and sudden shock.”
—Brian Komei Dempster
Glow
The skull wasn’t there.
We listened
to the heartbeat.
Would our child
live? Air tinted
gray, I moved
closer, searched the screen
for the halo
of bone,
touched glass
and stroked
our bad luck,
my finger leaving
its smudge
on the oval glow,
delicate as a grape.
The head would
never form.
Grace stared
at the brightness
then closed her eyes,
the light flickered
on our hands.
This second child. Never.
The dark
washed in,
heavy as water.
Did our baby know pain?
Inside tiny feet
kicking, small hands
open, fingers
reached out. Drift
of white static,
this broken globe
we had made.
There was some nice wordplay in Wednesday’s puzzle. The theme was “do a double take.” There were four paired answers. You had to remove two of the same letters from the first word to be left with the second word. For example, the two clues were “Staunchly loyal” and “Knob on an amplifier.” The answer to the first was TRUEBLUE. Then, you remove the two Us and are left with TREBLE. The other pairs were SATURDAY/STURDY (removing the As), RAINGEAR/RINGER (removing the As), and ATLANTIS/ALANIS (removing the Ts).
I went a little wild with wordplay from yesterday’s puzzle. It will be interesting to see if it gets any comments. [It didn’t.] Here it all is, with the answers from the puzzle in all CAPS, as usual (except MIT was not an answer).
The electrical engineers from Cal Tech and MIT fight over who are the greatest of EES.
With KAYE, TEE, KEW, two OHs, those EEs, that STRAIGHTA, and ORALB, this puzzle is a real alphABET soup.
Did you bring the money?
What money?
Why are you wearing a sailor suit?
Your message said something about setting sail.
No, you idiot — I said the judge SETBAIL.
D’oh!
When I told the arm surgeon to BONEUPON the ULNA before my operation, he gave me the finger.
Is KAL (Penn) in his dressing room? No, he’s ONSET.
So you’re telling me your sibling, Susan, was just crying wolf?
Yes. My sis Sue’s SOS is SUS.
Where you’ll find my grandson Isaac’s broccoli: TOTHESIDE, if not on the floor.
CAL, the university, was in the grid today. Lucky us, because it evoked the following tune from the movie of the same name.
On Saturday, that “Certain snack cake” was a YODEL. The folks at Drake’s churned them out. If offered, I wouldn’t turn one down.
But there’s a different type of YODEL in this Jerry Jeff Walker tune.
We’ve had to expand our You-Can’t-Make-This-Stuff-Up Department. When Trump banned CNN et al from the White House (an action later disallowed by the courts), the rest of the media outlets blacked him out as a show of support: an action the media should have taken long ago in response to the unending stream of insults and improprieties. Anyway, so now the DOJ is investigating whether that action constitutes an anti-trust violation, you know, because they acted in collusion. I’m just hoping they didn’t have to shift investigators off the vital Jim Comey seashells prosecution for it.
Can you check on that for us, Kaity?
We all heard of how stressed the folks on the USS Abe Lincoln were on their overlong deployment, right? Sounds like it was almost as bad as Linda’s and my Viking cruise last fall.
But did you know just how bad it was? This is from the NYT. And keep in mind that we’re not exactly scrimping on the defense budget.
“With Iran’s ballistic missiles able to hold all ports around the Arabian Peninsula at risk of attack, the Navy’s warships in the region began to experience shortages of food, fuel and other goods as the service moved its supply hub to the British-owned island of Diego Garcia about 2,200 miles away.”
That’s a pretty long trek to the grocery store for a package of Chips Ahoy!. Couldn’t see that coming, fellas?
“The first indications of problems came from family members of Lincoln sailors, who sent reporters photos of meager meals served on the ship while supplies were running low. ‘It was pathetic,’ Victoria Tozzi, whose son enlisted after high school to help fund his college education, said of the portions of food. ‘It looked gross, and he was like, yeah it’s pretty bad.’
Let’s pause here for a mo. The United States of America can’t decently feed its sailors in combat.
But that’s the least of it. Get this:
“Eight sailors tried to take their own lives. One jumped overboard, and another tried to do so before being stopped by shipmates.”
WTF!!
Of course, “When pressed about whether he was worried about the crew’s mental health and whether he thought the deployment had gone on too long, Trump said, ‘No. No. No.’ He added that the deployment — then more than eight months long — had not been ‘nearly long enough.’”
But never mind all that, another delicious flap has arisen over pretty Natalie Harp. It hasn’t gone unnoticed that she is fond of wearing short skirts. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But in Nebraska this week, things grew a bit unseemly between Nat and the boss. He called her out on stage to bring him some ridiculous order he was signing. And when she was done, he gushed over her droolingly, calling her a “perfect person.” It was immediately noted widely that he never gushes over Melania like that. Just sayin’.
In today’s puzzle, “Soapmaker’s supply” was LYE.
Soapmaker: I’m running low on supplies.
What’s the problem?
No LYE.
I believe you, but what’s the problem?
No LYE.
Are you deaf? I said I believe you.
Arggggh!
Richard Gray, of the Dull Men’s Club (UK) had some issues with this list of ingredients:
“Finally got around to picking up a bottle of Indian mixed pickle. Not a familiar brand so I had to spend the rest of the afternoon trying to get an enlargement of the ingredients. Not sure why Carrot and carrot are both listed, or what that oil is…”
Hmm. There are separate listings for “Carrot” and “carrot.” I noted: “Apparently, in the production of the item, both capitalized and lower case carrots were used.” Several members explained that “gingelly” oil is sesame oil.
Another member said: “That’s a jar; not a bottle.” Hrrrrumph.
Clare Lorraine Payne inquired (with an apology): “Does it have carrot in it?”
David Mortimer said the list was not as unusual as the list on a bag of peanuts he purchased which warned “May contain nuts.” But Annaoj Wright explained: A peanut isn’t actually a nut, it is a legume (similar to, say, a chickpea), so it is saying there may be actual nuts in it.
Gotta go check on the Jets. They were up 7-6 at the half. Thanks for dropping in. See you next time!
