Deer skulls, wine and precipitation

Janice brought a deer skull to writing group tonight and placed it on the table in front of us. We were to write for a half hour, poetry, using the skull as beginning and ending points with a tangent in the middle. I found it very unsettling and was really unable to follow the directions, feeling myself overwhelmed with the weight of death that clung to this object. She told us the story, that she and her conjoint had found the deer in the woods in January, brought down and mauled by coyotes, then carried home the picked-clean skull the following October. It was a male, a young buck with doubled-tined antlers. I imagined arcs of thought traveling between the points like sparks from some Tesla-inspired machine. I was also fascinated by the meandering sutures that joined the skull plates together. Otherwise, it was too redolent of death.

Earlier in the day the association had a reception for retiring profs and staff. I went long enough to have a glass of red wine, scarf some cheese, crackers, veggies and fruit and congratulate the retirees. Just prior to going, Little Princess messaged me from work that she was hungry and had no food, so I told her to meet me there and she could partake of the reception. That may have been cheating, but it was for a good cause. She didn’t stay long, as she was still technically working in the physics lab.

Kevin O dropped in on us out of the blue this afternoon, riding his bicycle. While he was here, the heavens opened and he, Hubby and I sat on the back deck watching the rain as it drenched everything. Eventually the sun came out, Kevin got back on his bike and was gone. But it didn’t take long for the clouds to come back, the growling of thunder to resume, and another bout of rain to fall. The river is higher than normal, the level halfway up the sitting rock. Through the open window in the attic I can hear the stream that runs by our house in full spate. More thunderstorms and cooler weather are predicted for tomorrow. Bah. Humbug.

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