animals – Page 28 – don't confuse the narrator

incubus

He comes to her at dawn,
sweet-nothings her awake
as he nuzzles past her ear,
whispering his desire, telling
how her sweat draws him, how
he would risk his life to serenade her,
to tangle through her hair and kiss
the smooth curve of her neck.

I’m not exactly bubbling over with new ideas at the moment, so I’m looking back over old notebooks and reviewing pieces that I never thought sufficiently polished to submit for comment and critique, let alone for publication. So this is still a draft, but it amuses me, as does the idea of writing a poem to a mosquito. Of course, if you’ve interpreted it as meaning something different, that’s your prerogative as reader.

self-fulfilling prophesies

I always check the stats page to see what people are searching for that leads them to the blog.

I already commented in pictures of pigs that I get a lot of visitors looking for “pig slaughter” – some of whom I hope go away satisfied that they’ve seen butchered swine on several pages, although, as yet, I’ve not actually been present at a matanza. (I do love the fact that Spanish doesn’t seem to distinguish between the idea of “slaughter” when it applies to approved animal killing for food, and “massacre” when applied to B-movie horror, e.g. La Matanza de Texas.)

Note that I’ve not been an eye-witness, but I have heard: there has to be a pun about “pigs’ laughter” and “squealing”, but I’m leaving that for another day.

Recently, though, there have been more searches for “science and technology poems”, and I think I am failing those potential readers. So I’d better do something about it (hence the post title).
Continue reading “self-fulfilling prophesies”

la penúltima

Grey mother cat & 3 black kittens suckling — One for the road

The Spanish don’t have “one last drink” – for them, it’s always “la penúltima”.

But the gatitos in the picture appear to have sucked all the colour from their mother and are now almost as large as she is. I’ve just seen her reject one of them despite his plaintive mewling, so maybe she’s finally decided to call last orders.

(No, it’s not a very good photo, but you wouldn’t have wanted me to disturb them, would you?)

speed, bonny boat

Under the headline Dolphin ‘superpod’ seen by wildlife spotters off Skye, the BBC start a story with this slightly disconcerting lede:

A group of wildlife spotters have encountered a massive pod of dolphins on a boat trip off the north coast of Skye.

I guess even dolphins must get tired of swimming sometimes.

being superstitious is lucky

Stevie Wonder may have been wrong when he sang “When you believe in things that you don’t understand, then you suffer.” According to an article on PhysOrg.com, German researchers have demonstrated that being superstitious can actually improve performance: if you have your lucky charm with you, you feel more confident and perform better. There again, it probably works the other way, too, and losing your amulet will make you perform worse.

Of course superstitions vary between cultures. I imagine that an English speaker who takes a test on Friday 13th will underperform, whereas a Spaniard would do worse if it was martes 13.