A Green Crab's Shell [Mark Doty]

Not, exactly, green:
closer to bronze
preserved in kind brine,

something retrieved
from a Greco-Roman wreck,
patinated and oddly

muscular. We cannot
know what his fantastic
legs were like--

though evidence
suggests eight
complexly folded

scuttling works
of armament, crowned
by the foreclaws'

gesture of menace
and power. A gull's
gobbled the center,

leaving this chamber
--size of a demitasse--
open to reveal

a shocking, Giotto blue.
Though it smells
of seaweed and ruin,

this little traveling case
comes with such lavish lining!
Imagine breathing

surrounded by
the brilliant rinse
of summer's firmament.

What color is
the underside of skin?
Not so bad, to die,

if we could be opened
into this--
if the smallest chambers

of ourselves,
similarly,
revealed some sky.

oh my,

i almost wish i had never heard of this designer ... i am now on a wild goose chase for anything i can find from his new collection online - even worse than that, when i find it? i'll be spending money. while i like the whimsy of all of his peices, the rings are what fascinate me the most - not just from this collection, but from BJORG jewellry in general

it got me looking around and here is a list of rings that you should admire:
- while frances wadsworth jones has many beautiful baubles, this ant ring in gold is my favorite.
- jacqueline cullen works with black fossilized wood, swoon.
- this laura berutti ring makes me think of the canary ring my mother used to trick me with...
- i love the entire gentle current series and it has a beautiful stone ring in it
- sometimes, the best rings are the kind with a secret.
- valeria salum's jewelry is interesting and quite versatile.
- for some reason, all i can see when i look at this ring, is alice in wonderland - i like that.

i'll call him slowpoke

i am buying this sloth from the como zoo. he sleeps all day, occasionally stirring to flare a nostril or half-open an eye. he awakes at night to change trees and only poops once a week. i feel he will get along famously with both edward and gatsby.

foodsnob

it came up the other night, while eating nachos - the kind with minced jalapeños and cilantro that had been soaked in lime juice, aged pepper cheddar, black beans, and freshly dice tomatoes and purple onion - that i may be a foodsnob. this is because my idea of nachos is the above, where some girls that i know, well, their idea of nachos is chips and cheese and a microwave.

this got me to thinking: where exactly did i get my ideas about food and when? there was a time when i microwaved nachos with the best of them when now the idea wouldn't even cross my mind...

while i'm still not sure, i would like to thank the following for my current foodsnobbiness:

*my mother for baking almost daily and letting me make the fork marks in the peanut butter cookies
*my nutrition teacher for being a babe
*spain for scoffing at store-bought mayo and pasta sauce
*nick for being far food-snobbier than i could ever be
*tastespotting.org for providing me with amazing inspiration until its demise
*louisa for being waaaay more advanced in the chocolate arts
*sunday dinner for making me bake weekly

john uskglass, the raven king

is finally making more of an appearance in the book! you know you want to come and share your thoughts on this one... the second half - waaaaaaay more interesting then the first, i promise. christian and eric and i had loads to say about the first half and if you ask nicely, maybe we'll enrich your mind with our ideas about mr norell and magic reminding us of medeival clergy and religion...

april first, 7:30 pm, we're meeting at my fourth floor abode to discuss the second half of this not-so-plot-driven novel (i know, i know, it's late - but someone is too cool and going to be at sxsw the week before).