2011/06/13

If This Shows How the Sea Approaches Life in Its Propensity to Feed as Animal Entire, then Sharks Are Comforts, Feet Are Terrified, but They Vacation in the Mystery and Why Not?



I love being on vacation but hate going on vacation. I hate the run up to and especially the come down from. Hate loath abhor. Hate.

Here's the itinerary:

  • Saturday: Arrive in London approx noon, stay overnight. Hotel is in Kensington.
  • Sunday: All day in London.
  • Monday: Bus to Cambridge, York, Leeds. Dinner is included so I'm assuming we get to Leeds in time to eat and go to sleep.
  • Tuesday: Bus to Jedburgh, Melrose, Edinburgh.
  • Wednesday: All day in Edinburgh.
  • Thursday: Bus to Lake District, Chester, Wrexham. Dinner is included so see Leeds above.
  • Friday: Bus to Stratford, Cardiff.
  • Saturday: Bath, Stonehenge, Salisbury, London. Late, I imagine.
  • Sunday: Home.
  • Monday: Jetlag.

Suggestions sought for the whole day in London and the whole day in Edinburgh.* The girls (did I mention I'm responsible for three eighteen and one seventeen year old girl) will either do what Earthgirl and I am doing or do their own thing. I've been to The Tower and The Tate and The Eye. Earthgirl wants to do this and cool, I know this guy will suggest this and maybe, but all other suggestions solicited!

I know nothing about Edinburgh except that I think Hearts' maroon is motherfucking gorgeous and I want a shirt from the club store. Suggestions, please! Any other general advice re: not getting ripped off in Britain, please. And if you see a white bald American tourist getting off a tour bus in a United sweatshirt, please say Hi.











PLAGUE OF DEAD SHARKS

Alan Dugan

Who knows whether the sea heals or corrodes? 
The wading, wintered pack-beasts of the feet
slough off, in spring, the dead rind of the shoes'
leather detention, the big toe's yellow horn
shines with a natural polish, and the whole
person seems to profit. The opposite appears
when dead sharks wash up along the beach
for no known reason. What is more built
for winning than the swept-back teeth,
water-finished fins, and pure bad eyes
these old, efficient forms of appetite
are dressed in? Yet it looks as if the sea
digested what is wished of them with viral ease
and threw up what was left to stink and dry.
If this shows how the sea approaches life
in its propensity to feed as animal entire,
then sharks are comforts, feet are terrified,
but they vacation in the mystery and why not?
Who knows whether the sea heals or corrodes?:
what the sun burns up of it, the moon puts back
.