Reset Forty-Nine, Day Fifty-Three
Jul. 16th, 2023 01:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rejectomorphA very strange experience marked Saturday evening. After lurking indoors with closed blinds al the sultry day I felt the need of a nap, thanks largely I think to the half can of beer I downed with the packet of tuna and the handful of crackers I was able to endure as lunch, and after waking a couple of times earlier I finally got up about half past eight. The problem was I'd forgotten when I'd one to bed, and somehow had developed the idea that it had been late in the evening and now I was waking up early Sunday morning.
The light around the closed blinds seemed dimmer than usual, and I went and looked out and it seemed overcast, and maybe even a bit smoky. I got on the computer and searched to see if there was a fire nearby. There wasn't, but the morning still seemed to grow dimmer rather than brighter. It wasn't until opened LJ, thinking I hadn't posted an entry for Saturday, and indeed I hadn't, though I had posted one on Saturday, which was when I realized I hadn't slept until after dawn Sunday, but until near sunset Saturday. I went out to look in the mailbox, and it was still damned hot out there. I have since made a sandwich for dinner and finished my can of lunch beer, and a bottle for dinner as well, and I'm still feeling temporal disorientation. I guess it's a foretaste of what it will be like when I'm be unable to tell what time it is at all.
So I've survived the second hottest day of the current heat wave. After the second hottest night will come the hottest day and then the hottest night, and then we get a respite of sorts; a single day below the century mark. Well, it can't be helped. I'll just sleep as much as I can, and not use the oven, and leave as many lights off as I can. And of course I'll pretend it's winter and that I'm being very self-indulgent with the heat. Altogether, they might be enough to get me through it.
Sunday Verse
by Pablo Neruda
Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still
for once on the face of the earth,
let’s not speak in any language;
let’s stop for a second,
and not move our arms so much.
It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.
Fishermen in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would not look at his hurt hands.
Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.
What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about…
If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with
death.
Now I’ll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.
The light around the closed blinds seemed dimmer than usual, and I went and looked out and it seemed overcast, and maybe even a bit smoky. I got on the computer and searched to see if there was a fire nearby. There wasn't, but the morning still seemed to grow dimmer rather than brighter. It wasn't until opened LJ, thinking I hadn't posted an entry for Saturday, and indeed I hadn't, though I had posted one on Saturday, which was when I realized I hadn't slept until after dawn Sunday, but until near sunset Saturday. I went out to look in the mailbox, and it was still damned hot out there. I have since made a sandwich for dinner and finished my can of lunch beer, and a bottle for dinner as well, and I'm still feeling temporal disorientation. I guess it's a foretaste of what it will be like when I'm be unable to tell what time it is at all.
So I've survived the second hottest day of the current heat wave. After the second hottest night will come the hottest day and then the hottest night, and then we get a respite of sorts; a single day below the century mark. Well, it can't be helped. I'll just sleep as much as I can, and not use the oven, and leave as many lights off as I can. And of course I'll pretend it's winter and that I'm being very self-indulgent with the heat. Altogether, they might be enough to get me through it.
Sunday Verse
Keeping Quiet
by Pablo Neruda
Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still
for once on the face of the earth,
let’s not speak in any language;
let’s stop for a second,
and not move our arms so much.
It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.
Fishermen in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would not look at his hurt hands.
Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.
What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about…
If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with
death.
Now I’ll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.
