THE TROUT (For Barnie Cooke)

By John Montague

Flat on the bank I parted
Rushes to ease my hands
In the water without a ripple
And tilt them slowly downstream
To where he lay, tendril-light,
In his fluid sensual dream.

Bodiless lord of creation
I hung briefly above him
Savouring my own absence,
Senses expanding in the slow
Motion, the photographic calm
That grows before action.

As the curve of my hands
Swung under his body
He surged, with visible pleasure.
I was so preternaturally close
I could count every stipple
But still cast no shadow, until

The two palms crossed in a cage
Under the lightly pulsing gills.
Then (entering my own enlarged
Shape, which rode on the water)
I gripped. To this day I can
Taste his terror on my hands.

I'll have my Pope slathered in lox, thx.

I talked to my mom on the phone today.

This may seem like a rather commonplace revelation, but in truth, ever since she started working with her boys, at a place I now realize I don't even know the name of, we don't get to talk ever. Her schedule defies my habit of calling people while I walk home from work.

But today she called me at lunch time and sadly, she had all sorts of bad news for me. It's all of those bits of bad news floating around in my head that have finally inspired me to write about all the good things that happened in the past couple of weeks. There's always something to be said for catharsis, I guess.

Thanks to my co-worker David, who is something like a walking magic hat of sorts (that is, anything you request, he will produce it in a puff of smoke, no mirrors required), Tim and I were able to attend the first and probably only Catholic mass of our lives, officiated by none other than his pope-iness himself, Bendict XVI.

I figure if you're only going to be Catholic for 2 hours, you should do it in the presence of the Pope. I have to say, I'm suspicious that few true Catholics are privileged to attend masses so entertaining as this one. Beside he awesome spectacle of watching the Pope make a victory lap around the field in the Popemobile, we also got to see 9,998 people take communion at once (talk about awkward, being the only two people NOT taking it...), a passed-out nun who had to be carried out on a stretcher, and Placido Domingo sing. I'm quite sure that most masses are not privileged with these sights, or with the frequent chanting of "VIVA PAPI!" and seemingly random and inappropriate cheering which rippled though the more daring and less reverent sections of the stadium.

On top of that we got free schwag bags of Pope goodies out of the deal, and we spent the morning outside on one of the first days of truly beautiful weather yet this year.



But honestly, as cool as it was to see the pope, I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I enjoyed my trip to Seattle with Jared to see Kacie. Honestly, if I had to choose between Kacie and the Pope, I'd pick Kacie any day.

Overall, I think the best word to describe this trip is "successful." It sounds a little cold and rigid maybe, but it really was a successful trip. The three of successfully ate entire neighborhoods down to the bare ground. We successfully saw and conquered everything in Seattle that has been or ever will be famous. We successfully met Kacie's new friends, particularly Amy, whom I've been secretly stalking on Facebook for at least a couple of months. She turned out to be exactly as awesome (or more) as Kacie (and Facebook) had insinuated she might be.

We knew it was going to be the perfect trip when Jared and I showed up and Kacie had made not ONE but TWO varieties of homemade enchiladas. Honestly, it still probably would have been fun if had showed up and Kacie had asked us to scrub her floors while she drank cocktails and talked on the phone.

After we had enchiladas, Jared got attacked by a giant salmon and we had to take him through the pouring rain of Starbucks coffee to Seattle Grace, where the doctors were too busy making out to operate on him. Kacie ended up calling Frasier Crane who was gracious enough to step out of his role as psychiatrist and walk her through the process of giving Jared stitches. Then we all met Meg Ryan at the top of the Empire State Building and lived happily ever after.

Ok, none of that really happened. But we really did have a lot of adventures.

It was so great to see where Kacie lives and to eat more food in four days that I normally eat in two weeks. We had farmers' market crepes with fresh cheese, towering mounds of sushi, platters of all kind of deep fried craziness and beer, the best brunch in the WORLD at Salty's on Alki, excellent Italian delivered to the door, fancy cheese-steaks, nachos, chicken sandwiches, crab cakes, omelets....

We managed NOT to eat anything swimming in the aquarium.

The weather was beautiful beyond belief (except for the few hours where it rained and we ducked into a theater to see "Smart People"). This was my third trip to Seattle and every time I like it better than the last time. Probably because every time the weather is gorgeous, the food is great, the people are nice and I'm on vacation.

This time I also happened to find my new favorite t-shirt for $5 in a junk shop/antique store.

Really it couldn't have been any more awesome (except if Tim had been able to come).

In other news, today I felt my first real earth quake (I was in another one in San Diego years ago, but I was in the shower and I missed it somehow...). Also, Tim and I are going to Shreveport for Carly's graduation in two days and today, Tim finished his first year of Graduate school!!!

Hooray!