UNACCOUNTABLE THINGS WE BETRAY

 37 of #100daychallenge.

First year this rose has blossomed. Fantastic scent, too.

The electricity is out this morning. That’s when it is nice to have a fully charged laptop battery and Bluetooth speakers. We are a little at loose ends, not being able to watch tv or surf the internet. Vera is crammed in the window, Idrisse is outside on the potting table. Vera thinks she needs to go kill Idrisse. I will never understand that, I just know that I had better go outside and move those vintage planters from the top of the potting bench or there will be casualties.

It’s hot already. I am suited up for yoga which I will teach in half an hour. I’ve no idea what I am going to do besides the usual. I am rather creaky myself. I cranked my neck on the side where I have the degenerating vertebrae and have bit of a headache as well.

Later

Four out of five cats are trying to find space to be near me on this small and messy desk. Vera is back in the window, which is the coolest spot by far.

This way is more convenient for head scratches and biting. This one makes it hard to concentrate, what with him flinging his tail around and so forth.

Teaching yoga was, again, fascinating and eye-opening. I try to introduce a new concept each week and this week we did a seated twisted. There is so much to review from even the three weeks I have already taught, and there is so much remedial work, it is pretty simple to fill up the hour or so. They always want to do more, but they can get overly tired just from a short walk. I have incorporated drinking lots of water during the session so that they get more accustomed to hydrating (not bad for me either). We work on things as basic as standing up and sitting down, although I add in trying to stay in proper alignment. All the yoga blocks I can find are at Joe's house now. I can see the tennis ball/feet exercises are helping Joe and Jimmy. 

I leave there feeling humbled and emotional. And fired up to teach more.

The rest of the day went by in shopping and errands. The closer it gets to the weekend, I imagine, the crazier it will get. I have seen other people on the neighborhood site complaining about the fireworks and what that does to the poor animals. I wish they could be contained to certain areas. Actually, they are contained to certain areas and I live in one of them.

I like the bee getting busy in there

BLUE CHINA DOORKNOB

I was haunted by the image of a blue china doorknob,

I never used the doorknob, or knew what it meant,

yet somehow it started the current of images.

— Robert Lowell

Rooms may be

using us. We

may be the agents

of doorknobs’

purposes, obeying

imperatives china

dreams up or 

pacing dimensions

determined by

cabinets. And if

we’re their instruments—

the valves of their

furious trumpets,

conscripted but

ignorant of it—

the strange, unaccountable

things we betray

were never our secrets

anyway.

— Kay Ryan, The Best of it: New and Selected Poems, Grove Press, New York, 2010