Week 61: IT'S HOT

A poem by Peter West 
its hot in the city 

White light glares on car rails, cobbles, 
Swirling dust and scraps of paper 
Stirred by baked enamel autos. 
Shirt-sleeved drivers, forearms upright 
Sickly-sweet, warm, wafted smells—from 
Joe’s Place and the Lucky Garden— 
Mingling, bring no invitation 

Lolling dogs droop in dead doorways. 
Children seek the soiled and struggling 
Patch of earthy grass between the 
Bus stop and the supermarket; 
Lining up to bow and gasp in 
Turn at the delicious shock of 
Water gushing from the fountain. 

Damp, red men and moist, pale women 
Feel the grilling sidewalks reach up, 
Suck vitality through shoe soles 
Down toward the earth’s hot center. 
Old folk, wise, released from tension, 
Rock, or fan themselves on porches. 

But 
Nobody hurries. 

Friday: and man flies, gasping 
From what he has made 
Out, off and away 
To the cool wood, 
The sweet turf 
Or the limpid lake— 
To breathe. . . 

It’s HOT in the city. 

--

When I was in high school, I took an English writing course, and that poem was the subject of a hilariously bad reading by myself and several other members of the class.Our interpretation involved all of the group members but one droning out one line, followed by a single person reading the next line and yelling out random words, e.g. "It's hot in THE city!!". The poem immediately became an inside joke among the people in my grade, none of whom read this blog. Hmm.

I posted this poem not because I am in a particularly poetic mood, but because it is HOT, and I always think of this poem when it's hot. Both yesterday and today were well above 30C and humid. Summer is here! People are out in force with umbrellas for the sun, and lots of people are out and about in yukata (summer kimonos) because there are festivals all over the place! 

Once again I had a pretty boring week, with the exception of nearly having a meltdown on Friday night because I JUST WANTED TO GO HOME and the streets were absolutely clogged with Ham fans. Don't get me wrong: I love a baseball team named after a pork processing company as much as the next person, but those were the worst crowds I have ever been stuck in in my entire life. Plus there was a group of drunk, rowdy foreigners a short distance behind me in the traffic jam, and I didn't want to be associated with them :p Actually, now that it's summer (and also now that I live downtown instead of in the middle of nowhere) I have noticed a TON of foreign tourists! I keep waiting for one of them to ask me for directions, but alas. Only old Japanese women ask me for directions.

The other thing that happened this week was a huge lab cleanup! We moved to a new lab several months ago, but we had to leave a ton of equipment and chemicals in our old lab just up the street due to storage limitations. Well, this week we finally went back for a massive cleanup. We unearthed a few treasures in the process. One grad student found a statue of Asuka from Evangelon, which was clearly won from one of the most difficult kinds of crane games!! Now she lives on his desk (which is beside mine).

I found a cd for the band Mr.Children, who are playing a concert at the Sapporo Dome in a few weeks! I haven't listened to it yet because I keep forgetting it in the lab.

Next weekend is a long weekend.... the last long weekend that I'm going to have in Japan!! There is a big fireworks display that I might try to check out, and I supposed I'd better start trying to knock things off of my "things to do before I leave Japan" list. For starters, I should probably make a list of things that I want to do before I leave Japan...