Sometimes I'm right and I can be wrong

But Dolly was always right.

Inconceivable

Coming to That:

“If it comes to that,” he said, “there’ll be no

preventing it.”

He uttered it as I listened. Had I got it right,

hearing him?

“If it comes to that,” is what he said, and,

as if talking

to himself, went on about how there’d be no

preventing it.

He came to that conclusion, saying it in a

slow way of

coming to that, whatever that was it might

come to before

not being prevented—and as if such a thing

were for him

the unthinkable, and would prevail, if it

came to that.

 

And while listening more closely now to

what he said,

I realized if no one paid him heed, it would

be as if he

hadn’t said it—if it came to that—and would

then not be

prevented from falling to forces known to

care little for

what he said, even if they heard it, their

being wily

and forceful enough to make sure it would

come to that.

Dorothea Tanning.

She’s Back with Her Man

There was a long spell when Jolene was little Sammy's favorite song.  Rest in peace, Dolly, with Carl back at your side.

I'll be alone, dancing, you know it, baby

Anthem of my generation.

We’re Floating in the Moonlit Sky

The Streets of Air:

All night waiting, in an empty house
under dry electric moons, they cast
no shadow, a man striding impatiently
sucking a dry pipe, waiting
an empty sacrificial vessel waiting
without patience to be filled with God. 

He said,
                —There was a scratching at my door
the noise of some one fingering the latch
once, but I opened and only found the night
empty of sound, empty—
                                            The images of drouth
in a parched land growing, acacias in the sand
with thorns and thornlike leaves that cast no shadow,
dry leaves silently moving in the sun. 

A wall rose there, of hewn enormous stones
laid without mortar and a gateway, barred
and skies closed in.
                                  But you shall hear the thunder
of bursting walls, the gates of night swing wide,
and journeys will be set toward the thunder. 

Your path shall be the empty streets of air. 

Malcolm Cowley.

You Might Get What You’re After

Ah, The Burning of Washington:

Following the defeat of American forces at the Battle of Bladensburg on August 24, 1814, a British army led by Major-General Robert Ross marched on Washington, D.C. That evening, British soldiers and sailors set fire to multiple public buildings, including the Presidential Mansion (White House), United States Capitol, and Washington Navy Yard.

Here's a before and after picture of the White House:

Damn the bastards to Hell who did this.

<exits singing, I'm an ordinary guy...>

Sometimes a Cigar Is Just a Good Smokeshow

 
Note to self: do not repeat yesterday’s mistakes.

...

Silence:

     I have known the silence of the stars and of the sea,
And the silence of the city when it pauses,
And the silence of a man and a maid,
And the silence of the sick
When their eyes roam about the room.
And I ask: For the depths
Of what use is language? A beast of the field moans a few times
When death takes its young.
And we are voiceless in the presence of realities—
We cannot speak. 

Edgar Lee Masters.

First Earthrise

Above is the first image of Earth from the distance of the Moon, taken by Lunar Orbiter 1 on August 23, 1966 (2008 reprocessed version).  And to think that just a couple years later, Bill Anders would take his famous shot during the Apollo 8 mission.

There was another lunar event on this date, just a few years back:

Why India Celebrates National Space Day on August 23

India celebrates National Space Day on August 23rd to honor the historic success of Chandrayaan-3—India's third lunar mission—which successfully soft-landed on the Moon's south pole on August 23, 2023. This achievement made India the first country to reach the Moon’s south pole, and only the fourth country ever to achieve a soft lunar landing (after the US, USSR/Russia, and China).

Prime Minister Narender Modi’s Official Statement:

“From now onwards, 23rd August will be celebrated as National Space Day in India. This will inspire generations to come.”

The more the merrier...

A drop upon the windowpane

The sea awaits the dawn.

Will You Call My Name?

But Not Forgotten:

I think, no matter where you stray,

That I shall go with you a way.

Though you may wander sweeter lands,

You will not soon forget my hands,

Nor yet the way I held my head,

Nor all the tremulous things I said.

You still will see me, small and white

And smiling, in the secret night,

And feel my arms about you when

The day comes fluttering back again.

I think, no matter where you be,

You'll hold me in your memory

And keep my image, there without me,

By telling later loves about me.

Dorothy Parker.

When you're gone

How can I even try to go on?

 

Getting to Be That Time of Year

"Darkness":

There were four angels round my bed, I
With burning candlesticks outspread—
Two at my feet, two at my head.
They tricked the darkness of its dread,
          My four angels,
          My bright candles.

There came a man of vision clear,
He said: "The angels are not here,
They are phantoms born of fear.
I speak, and they will disappear—
          Those four angels,
          Those bright candles." 

Out they went, and there instead
Rolled the universe outspread
In tumbling terror round my head;
So that I go afraid to bed,
          With no angels,
          With no candles. 

Ruth Manning-Sanders.

I'd give the moon if it were mine to give

Settle down there, George Bailey.