Hot cat!!!



(the indisputable...)

Marge Piercy

By request (although this is not the one that either of us was thinking of):

Colors Passing Through Us

Purple as tulips in May, mauve
into lush velvet, purple
as the stain blackberries leave
on the lips, on the hands,
the purple of ripe grapes
sunlit and warm as flesh.

Every day I will give you a color,
like a new flower in a bud vase
on your desk. Every day
I will paint you, as women
color each other with henna
on hands and on feet.

Red as henna, as cinnamon,
as coals after the fire is banked,
the cardinal in the feeder,
the roses tumbling on the arbor
their weight bending the wood
the red of the syrup I make from petals.

Orange as the perfumed fruit
hanging their globes on the glossy tree,
orange as pumpkins in the field,
orange as butterflyweed and the monarchs
who come to eat it, orange as my
cat running lithe through the high grass.

Yellow as a goat's wise and wicked eyes,
yellow as a hill of daffodils,
yellow as dandelions by the highway,
yellow as butter and egg yolks,
yellow as a school bus stopping you,
yellow as a slicker in a downpour.

Here is my bouquet, here is a sing
song of all the things you make
me think of, here is oblique
praise for the height and depth
of you and the width too.
Here is my box of new crayons at your feet.

Green as mint jelly, green
as a frog on a lily pad twanging,
the green of cos lettuce upright
about to bolt into opulent towers,
green as Grand Chartreuse in a clear
glass, green as wine bottles.

Blue as cornflowers, delphiniums,
bachelors' buttons. Blue as Roquefort,
blue as Saga. Blue as still water.
Blue as the eyes of a Siamese cat.
Blue as shadows on new snow, as a spring
azure sipping from a puddle on the blacktop.

Cobalt as the midnight sky
when day has gone without a trace
and we lie in each other's arms
eyes shut and fingers open
and all the colors of the world
pass through our bodies like strings of fire.

Marge Piercy

Sparky the cockerel

Just like his dad, absolutely gorgeous and starting to crow! Aaaargh!!!

Today is my birthday and I'm having a lovely day. Children, chickens, friends and a seriously gorgeous boyfriend to celebrate.

Best present not received yet - a bow (and some arrows), as I'm loving my new interest. Strange to be vegetarian and startlingly accurate in 'killing' pretend things out in the woods. If I'm ever really hungry, I'll be able to hunt down my own tofu.

By popular demand...

More chick news. We have eleven chicks growing apace right now - five under their broodymum and six making their own way in the world, having finally left the womb-like environment of the heatlamped cage. All but two of them are girls! Including the three millefleurs (from my wishlist, so I'm very happy indeed).

Here they are, looking particularly sweet:

We'll keep all three of these, and now we know they're girls I guess we'll name them too. Probably after flowers, since their breed is called after a thousand flowers (referring to the pattern on their feathering).

Sadly, little Pugh died after a week - he was just too little to cope without his mum, especially after she'd damaged him so badly in her brood rationalising attack. The ones underneath her now are all dutch bantams. Yesterday morning I found one away from her, shivering and cold - the only solution being to take her into work with me. I was about to tuck her down my bra to keep her warm when she reminded me of her ability to produce large quantities of chick poo without warning. Suddenly I felt less breastfully nurturing. After a day in a shoebox getting lots of TLC, she was better enough to go back in with psychomum. Looking good again.

It's rather difficult to get pictures of Buffy with her brood yet - I'll try this weekend.

(How's that, Mercy?)