Saturday in CinCity. The Miss New Orleans Edition.

Our girlie-girl was in New Orleans for the Final Four final game, but had another reason to be down there which involved a job interview. After weeks of crossing our fingers and lighting multiple Our Lady of Guadelupe candles--very concerned about job prospects and economic recovery--our girl found out she got the job. While she is busy packing up this weekend for her move next week, we are busy gathering bits and pieces here to exchange with her the things she won't need till she finds an apartment. Go down with a fold-up cot, come back with a backseat full of winter coats and sweaters. Sheer joy and excitement have been replaced with some nostalgia and a nod to Time who keeps truckin' on whether we are quite packed and ready or not.

For a Daughter Gone Away

by Brendan Galvin


Today there’ve been moments

the earth falters and almost

goes off in those trails of smoke

that resolve to flocks so far

And small they elude my naming.

Walking the Boston & Maine

roadbed, September, I understand

why it takes fourteen

cormorants to hold the bay’s

rocks down. Have I told you

anything you ought to know?

In time you’ll come to learn

that all clichés are true, that

a son’s a son till he marries,

and a daughter’s a daughter

all her life, but today

I want to begin Latin with you

again, or the multiplication

tables. For the that first phrase of

unwavering soprano that came

once from your room, I’d suffer

a year of heavy metal. Let all

who believe they’re ready for

today call this sentimentality,

but I want the indelible

print of a small hand

on the knees of my chinos again,

now that my head’s full of

these cinders and clinkers

that refused fire’s refinements.

I wish I could split myself

to deepen and hold on as

the crossties have, and admit

goatsbeard and chicory,

bluecurls and blazing star,

those weeds of your never quite

coming back. I wish I could stop

whatever’s driving those flocks

and drove the B & M freights into air.




I believe I'm soon to find out, Lady Day.


please note: photo by monkeypox