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All posts by sean
surface skater
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Posted by sean on September 19, 2012
https://sd-stewart.com/2012/09/19/surface-skater/
corn crake
Drawing of the Corncrake from Naumann, Natural History of Birds in Central Europe, Volume VII, Table 15 – published 1899
I want to see a Corncrake (Crex crex), also known as Corn Crake. I think I prefer the two word spelling, but I’m not sure yet. In this post I will test out both. We don’t have Corn Crakes here in the U.S. Last year someone claimed to have seen one in Maryland, but it was never verified. Seems unlikely…that would be extreme vagrancy. Corncrakes are in the rail family, a group of secretive mostly marsh-dwelling birds known for mystical practices like turning sideways and disappearing. One Maryland birder reported seeing a rail literally walk through a fence. Unlike other rails, though, corncrakes live on dry land. They prefer grasslands, especially hayfields. Corn Crakes, like most rails, are notoriously difficult to spot. The corn crake was also a threatened species for some time due to changes in mowing practices and loss of habitat. Numbers remain low in western Europe; however, increased monitoring determined that due to its expansive range, the species is actually not in any immediate danger of disappearing.
I’ll admit that the only reason I really want to see a Corncrake is because I love its name. And frankly speaking, I really don’t care if I get to see one or not. I’m just glad it’s out there doing its things. Corn Crake may just be my favorite name of any bird in the world that I know of. I also like Wood Stork, but I’ll save that for another day. Corncrake makes me think of autumn. Sometimes when I am sad I just think Corn Crake and I feel better. Corn Crake. Corn Crake. Corn Crake. Corn Crake. Corncrake. Sometimes it’s like that and it doesn’t take much. Other times a bit more. What can you do. Oh, whatever can you do. Not much other than think about Corncrake and hope for safe passage to the other side.
Posted by sean on September 18, 2012
https://sd-stewart.com/2012/09/18/corn-crake/
r_i___fe, __t____ic
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Posted by sean on September 18, 2012
https://sd-stewart.com/2012/09/18/r_i___fe-__t____ic/
tenodera aridifolia = one riot, a failed raid
The One and The Other are on vacation this week. Or they may have time traveled or transcended reality or something. It’s hard to say for sure. They are unreliable narrators. I overheard them jabbering about surfing wicked eddies in the space-time continuum. As I left the room, I saw them out of the corner of my eye, a brief flash. I think they were holding towels. Perhaps they’re now cavorting with mattresses on Sqornshellous Zeta.
I saw many birds this weekend. Birds. Birds. Birds. I went to the park. Twice. I saw a Chinese Mantis (Tenodera aridifolia). It flew across my path and landed in a tree. Fun!
On Saturday night I played Bananagrams. I felt sure I’d win on account of all the anagramming I’ve been doing lately, but I did not. Win, that is. One of my opponents was a known fierce competitor. Fastest bananagrammer in the West, they say. Now, I’m an anagram purist and do not think you should be able to dump letters, even considering that you are penalized by having to take extras when you do. When I mentioned this I was accused of being difficult. I ended up screwed several times at the end of a round when I picked up everybody’s crappy discarded letters. I think I prefer Boggle and Scrabble.
Work is work is work is work is work. Bah. Read poetry outside at midday near the water. So many old white men in suits. Just wait until they get the corporate nudity memo. Bloated bellies, sagging flesh tubes, scraggly grey chest hair…THE WORLD WILL SEE IT ALL. No one will be intimidated again by your fetid air of combed-over superiority.
Reading again about how the lucrative used tire market is the nefarious cause behind one of my summer woes. Isn’t that a bitter pill. I can’t get over it. Me, who hates cars and doesn’t even own one. I dream of an apparently pre-1987 world where I could actually enjoy my deck instead of shrinking from it in fear for months at a time. Where assassins did not invade the sanctity of my home, lurking in the low shadows, inserting their proboscises into my flesh to make a blood withdrawal. Used tires? Are you kidding me?
So here I am with my brand new 1970s rec room molester carpet, my office looking much tidier as a result, the shaggy blunt brutality of Monday closing in on me. The horror, the horror. And those brats The One & The Other not even here to entertain me. Damn them.
This didn’t really go where I wanted it to go.
Posted by sean on September 17, 2012
https://sd-stewart.com/2012/09/17/tenodera-aridifolia-one-riot-a-failed-raid/
d = rt erasure
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At night I welcome, empty and silent, shadow trees
Beneath my fears it’s safe
It might not matter
Morning is white shreds of a shroud shrugged off
Suspend to gaze on bareness I always see
Time plagues
How far is it that matters
I can never get some time
I hate cellophane
Suck the rush, spit the sky, fall with no reason
Stretch out, fail the clouds
These things are objects
I don’t want control, our actions sung once
We state the obvious, of course
Of course they know I was crippled
I failed in the rain, spitting the candy
My tongue broke
And now this tinker to solder a space
Behind organs of my own
Posted by sean on September 14, 2012
https://sd-stewart.com/2012/09/14/d-rt-erasure/
yes to sloth reincarnation
I see everything. It’s staggering. Many things are ugly and sad. A few things are beautiful in a superficial way. Some things are ugly in a beautiful way. Or sad in a beautiful way. Or neutral seen through a colored lens of your own choosing. Re: The sky is a lovely shade of cornflower blue / The sky is boring, why is it always blue, but sometimes white / The sky makes me sad / The sky overpowers me with its vastness / The sky enrages me.
Flaws are necessary. Imperfections abound. Everything is so strange. I don’t understand what people are doing. How they are living, existing. Where comes the drive for them to do something. I think I need more sunlight. The darkness slow-kills me with eight-hour stab wounds. My daytime cave smothers me. Who are these people. Don’t tell me. Maybe I need them. I’m not really in a rush.
I can no longer walk ten feet without writing something down. I keep waiting for a lamp post to approach me with violent intent. The suddenness of everything happening around me is electrifying. I’m a festering open sore and the world is my penicillin. But wait, I am allergic. Look out, I’m rejecting the transplant. Maybe I like being alone in a crowd. Maybe the reincarnation is almost complete. Routine comforts and horrifies me. I want it to be different but I’m afraid.
Today was the ice cream social at work. A group of awkward people convened to eat ice cream in a cramped meeting room. Our leader thanked us for doing a good job. It was uncomfortable. We ate our ice cream in silence. Some small talk scratched a flint but the kindling never caught. But there was vegan whipped cream! And organic vegan sprinkles! And vegan chocolate sauce! I ran outside when it was done! It was too late for cigar-smoking man. But expose-her-shoulders-to-the-sun girl was out there. And some bike messengers. I secured a good seat, read another piece in Zone 3. I took the sun and held it close.
As I rode through the supermarket parking lot on the way home, I saw a hearse. Its back window was painted in a colorful stylized manner with the words Girls & Corpses. Soon after, I saw some young runners. I felt a thrill. I felt the sun leave me. This is a true story.
~ FIN ~
Posted by sean on September 13, 2012
https://sd-stewart.com/2012/09/13/yes-to-sloth-reincarnation/
o quiet moss erasure
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Posted by sean on September 13, 2012
https://sd-stewart.com/2012/09/13/o-quiet-moss-erasure/
the vagulator’s erasure
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Posted by sean on September 12, 2012
https://sd-stewart.com/2012/09/12/the-vagulators-erasure/
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