"island in the sun"

Big A has biked over a hundred miles every day for the past four days, we're doing our part by waiting for him in at a resort on Mackinac Island.

A teensy labor day weekend vacation for us. We've sampled the requisite fudge and taffy, admired the gorgeous views, and smelled the horse poop (cars aren't allowed on the island, so horse-carriage taxis and drayage are the mode).

Vacations are good for everyone. I haven't seen Huck this excited and animated in a while; Max barfed in the car and is afraid of horses, boats, stairs, people who look at him the wrong way, etc. but enjoys each  adventure; Nu has dubbed this "horse-shit island" and has claimed they will never return here, but is full of jokes, confidences, and ideas. I owe an editor a bibliography, but I can find it tomorrow when we're back.

Pic: Lounging: A happy Huck, a mopsy Max, and a nonchalant Nu.

summer retreat

every morning I try to learn
it's my  errand  as the  sun goes blind

I become  the  day's drama

the music of birds; the silence of birds

I've hammered desire into 
some general  theory of dispossession
shredding the faces of flowers
until they become a synonym of before

It is a question of attention

an experiment to re-turn these directions

to trust--quick--desire as true

pause as I pour more love into the world

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Pic: Max discovers the hideout of Kylo, the black squirrel who regularly taunts the puppies. There's a train behind the tree-line too.

a DALMAC house

Big A is doing the DALMAC, the multi-day camping bike tour from Lansing to Mackinaw Island. He left yesterday, and the first stop on the tour is near the town where I teach. It's so silly, but we were SO EXCITED TO MEET at school this morning and I walked him to the water fountain so he could fill his water bottles. We hugged and held hands all the way and then kissed behind a pillar. 

There was practically no one around at 7:50 am, but in retrospect, this still seems silly. I have no idea why we're like this or when we're going to stop being silly and embarrassing.

Pic: A selfie Big A sent me at the start of the ride yesterday. I think he looks so much like his baby picture in this!

until 2037

I heard the next super blue moon will happen in 2037... that seems like a very long wait. I tried (and failed) to get good pictures last night.

But as I waited for Nu's school bus (not with them, god forbid... I waited a respectful, nonchalant, and unembarrassing twenty paces away), all this loveliness just showed up.

Pic: Yesterday's super blue moon at sunrise this morning.

celebrations

It's EM's birthday! It's my dad's birthday! AD is in remission! It's a blue moon! It's a blue moon and a super moon! It's raksha bandhan! 

After work, I was in and out of the house all evening taking soup to AD and pastries and presents to EM (whom we celebrated over dinner last week). Many folks do all this commuting everyday with their kids' activities and sports and... wow. It's a lot.

Our rakhi days are different from everyone else's. This year, only Nu is wearing their rakhi on their wrist; At is wearing theirs on their ankle (work doesn't allow bracelets), and Huck and Max are wearing theirs on their collars. The kids--human and canine--have been tying on rakhis and promising to protect each other for as long as I can remember. But the years are distinct. This is Max's first; we missed Scout. I looked back at last year's celebration, and it feels like a different pandemic world!

After dinner, we called my dad to serenade him with birthday songs and then went outside to look for the blue super moon. My city kids (pointing at a distant streetlight) "Is that it?" (Face palm.)

We finally found it later and higher in the sky--so, so lovely!

at night when

I walk  past  our  house 

again and again... again

with  our  dogs, actually 

silent  blue  super moon 

close  enough  to  touch 

I feel a bit like... a ghost

on the outside I can feel  

only flowing and falling 

the swallowing of places 

like  I'm  not  even  here

our windows like pages 

in a picture book, maybe

a  passage  from  a novel 

this bloom in your voice 

as I finally open the door

Pic: Nu, Max, Big A, & Huck. These guys! Being so cute when I returned from a long day of teaching. 

High: seeing new and familiar faces in class. + Being able to remember the names of a hundred or so new students. 

Low: Saying goodbye to JD, a dear colleague-friend who's moving to U of M.

It's happening...

Fall and the fall semester are here whether I'm ready or not.

I'm ready.

I'm not.

I don't know! 

All my materials are ready, so I should feel ready too? Tomorrow will be here soon, anyway.

I've been excited and anxious about the first day of school since I was about five or six. It's probably the longest unbroken seasonal tradition I've got. That and sitting in the first row. The child advocacy organization we visited on Saturday posted a picture of our group on the socials... and there I am... sitting nerdily in the first row as always.

Pic: A lone maple leaf settles on our freshly redone street.