I. Perigee

Our ends of the world diverge on Sundays,
whose mornings I spend in blissful sleep
while you, dutiful, arrow-straight, make haste
to wash and clothe and drive. All to keep

the Sabbath. In the winding arch and curve
of your days, this one claims itself parahelion:
the closest to origins; the day to observe,
revere, reflect; resolution.II. Parabola

Two lines, if not drawn in perfect parallel,
deal with the pains of intersection at some point.
They meet, then disengage, and tell

Today, a small bit of bravery, in the form of eight glass jars. Seven wholly filled, one halfway so.

Today, a small bit of bravery, in taking a small step and learning something new. The jars are filled with strawberry jam; the homemade kind that contains only three ingredients: strawberries, sugar, and enough pectin to make the first two ingredients hold together. I am a mere shadow of my grandmother—this, a frail and feeble attempt at preserving a stunning batch of strawberries, pales in comparison to the food preservation she did out of necessity. I wonder if she would cheer that I am learning such a basic skill or if she would feel somewhat disgusted that I am making a mockery of what was once, before, a basic skill for living.

If you haven't seen the Library of Congress' exhibit 'The Empire That Was Russia'—The Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record Revealed, then you should take the time to look at it.

Before you do, though, read up on the process. A short summary: a photographer travelled around Russia in the 1910s ('nineteen-teens' if you're my grandmother), photographing everything from royalty to commoners to landscapes to architecture.The incredible thing is the medium he used—a camera with three filters, which provided him three photographic plates. One red, one green, one blue. He apparently had a stereoscope-like contraption that allowed him to project his images back together into one color photograph for others to view.

Earlier today, I joked with Jeff that I should post an entry of rants. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea.

Let's see.

• First, to Knology, our cable provider. Due to shoddy service and a general run-around over the past few days, we're on the verge of 1) switching cable modem providers 2) demanding a refund for all the service we didn't get this month. Our service has been out for part of every day for the past week. My apologies to those of you who attempted to access domesticat on Friday afternoon. I was halfway through major changes on the site, and had uploaded files but not rebuilt them with greymatter—and then our connection conked out for about five hours.

Stomach, down.
Globular compression
between 250-count percale
and unyielding rib.
Chin over pillow
in the dark,
blue lines on white sheets,
pointing, headboard to footboard.
Arms outstretched, encircled,
You, a half-sleeping reach
to draw breath scented
of my shampoo.
In the nearsighted world
between undress and sleep
I can only wonder
at your previous life's price
which purchased a rebirth
as the most spoiled creature
in my household.
(meow.)

***

Here's what's going on in my world.