Cold

I've got a cold. Fortunately, I have nothing scheduled for this day, so can lay low. The nutritionist I used to see called me this morning, just to check in. I told her about the thing on my tongue, and she said it sounded like oral lichen planus. She's very very smart, and I learned a great deal from her. I googled lichen planus, and sure enough, it sounds (and looks) like what I have. I won't post a photo since some of you were grossed out by my blood mandala. Wusses. The biopsy is tomorrow, so should have a diagnosis soon.)

M & S came for dinner last night. Had S's favorite menu: turkey hotdogs, cauliflower, and potatoes. She ate a ton! She didn't even want her dessert. She told me she is getting two mice tomorrow, one white and one black. She doesn't have names yet. I told them stories about my childhood pets, Homer, and Cleo, and several others, hamsters and gerbils. I liked them very much.

Just saw this in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/health/07diabetes.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

You know how when you get an amaryllis bulb and it's so beautiful when it blooms, but you can never get it to bloom again? Well, I've got two from years past blooming again. I think it's because I kept fertilizing the bulbs before they went dormant, as that's what provides the energy for the plant to bloom again. Yea, me!
I rock as a gardener. Both me thumbs be green. (I won't tell you about the plants I've lost from trying to find the right windows for them here. I'm trying to keep at least one double lavender/pink tropical hibiscus alive, but I don't know.

















The Metaphor of My Father's Coat

I've been wearing it
The buttons have been
one by one
falling off
The thread old and weak
I sew them back on.

There is no lining
No inner layer
although once it existed
the lonely zipper
runs along the inside edge
with a memory
perhaps
of a warm protective interior lamina

What I miss most about my father
is not having known
his closeted self
The qualities I imagined
longed for
believed were present

I wear his coat
Allow molecules
particles of the past
his past his life
embedded in the cloth
to skim my exterior

Lacking a lining
it's all I have left.