35 days
I read that the gestation period for swans is 35 days, but it seems like it has been longer than when the three swans formed a tribe and began watching the nest. Today, looking over at the little island it appeared as if a two-headed swan was nesting while the black one circled around making those ourh ourh noises. I’m watching and waiting for a site of those baby swans. Sitting beside the bank of the lagoon was an Old Milwaukee with a straw in it. It made me think about our vices, something I was pondering as I watched Kusterica’s While Father Was Away on Business, a Yugoslovian film that highlighted the brother against brother dynamic that became even more acute during the 10 year war but what I had latched onto was the father’s promiscuity – almost like an addiction or a right. Put a straw in it, you can drink it faster.
Later, as I was walking home, I saw my neighbor who was so anxious to have another child she considered adoption before she finally got pregnant, now here we are some years later and she was putting both children in the back of the car, and once she had gotten them in and buckled up I heard the screaming and she got out, rolled her yes and said to me, “It’s the same thing every morning!”
I came home and pulled Tin out of his crib – Tin who went #2 in the potty yesterday – such a big boy and he asked for Salt Peanuts. Salt Peanuts, Salt Peanuts. If Dizzy Gillespie would have known the spell he put a two year old under with this song, he might not have ever written it. But 35 days from now, when Tin is headed off to college who knows what the “same thing every morning” will be. So for now, Salt Peanuts, put a straw in it!