Merlin, have you considered swallowing the fly?

While I was reading Merlin's blog about the pest infestation at his house, a poem came to the forefront of my mind. It seemed to come of its own volition, as I haven't thought of this poem in a number of months.


You see, there was an old lady that swallowed a cow,
I don't know how she swallowed a cow.
She swallowed the cow to catch the dog,
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed a fly - perhaps she'll die.

As you can see from this excerpt, it is equally as profound as one of Stevens' poems and I think there might even be a few lessons to learn.

#1= Chew your food.

This one goes without saying, it seems ludicrous to not chew your food, right? Nevertheless, the poem is very specific that she swallowed each of the animals. I am quite certain that her constant disregard for normal eating habits led to her ultimate demise. In the next line, she swallows a horse and then dies, of course.

#2= Respect your elders.

I like to think that if this little old lady had a grandchild around, he or she probably would have talked sense to her at some point. At least she probably could have been prevented from eating the cat... I'm not too worried about spiders and birds, but the cat was sort of the catalyst for when things really got out of hand.

#3= Eating a fly was probably the least of her problems.

Besides the evident loneliness and possible mental illness that led to this poor woman's downfall, thatsfit.com says that the average human eats about 2 pounds of insects inadvertently each year. I don't know how this study was conducted but, now that I know the facts, I'd say a fly here and there isn't that big a deal in the grand scheme of things.

So Merlin, don't let that fly get the best of you. Show that fly who is higher up on the food chain.


Anywho, if you don't like my advice, here is what Stevens' says on the subject. I looked in the index and this is his only mention of any sort of "fly".

"Flyer's Fall"

This man escaped the dirty fates,
Knowing that he did nobly, as he died.

Darkness, nothingness of human after-death,
Receive and keep him in the deepnesses of space—

Profundum, physical thunder, dimension in which
We believe without belief, beyond belief.


I won't deny that it is a bit more grim than the "Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly", but it is equally as thought-provoking. 

This is a long one.

Dr. Sexson's analysis of "The Idea of Order at Key West" was eerily familiar to me. It was as if he took something out of my own life and decided to talk about it in class.

In his backstory to the poem, Dr. Sexson said that after he and James had heard the woman sing the song, the song that was more beautiful than the sea itself, they looked back from where they had come and said, "Why are we seeing something different?" And in answer to his own question Dr. Sexson said, "The world has changed." Now was it that the world had literally changed, or that his and James's perspective on the world had been transformed? What a question. It reminded me of a book that I recently read. The thing about this book is that I did not choose to read it. It chose me. How cliche, right? But it did. Let me explain.

I was abroad last year in the south of France, and I went into many a book store. I kept seeing this book titled 1Q84. I remember specifically seeing it several times because, every time that I did, it reminded me that I have never read Orson Welles's 1984.

Anyway, fast-forward to April, I was on a train that I was not supposed to be on... I had bought a train ticket, but my plane was late, resulting in me missing the train that I was supposed to be on. Fortunately, I was able to catch another train going to the same destination immediately after I got to the station. These details are important, because I was not supposed to meet the woman who recommended the book. She sat next to me and our train was just sitting in the station, due to another delay. I asked the woman  what was happening, because I did no understand why we were not yet moving, and she told me the train is running a half hour late. She was so friendly! She told me that she loved my American accent, she wants to visit America again someday, and all about the book she was reading: Kafka sur le Nuage. She told me she loved this author and that the next time I was looking for a book I should read a Haruki Murakami. When I finally went to the bookstore, weeks later, I remembered this woman, the woman that I was not supposed to meet, and I decided to look into the book that she wanted me to read. Quelle surprise!! The author of this recommended book had also written 1Q84, the book that I saw everywhere! But, a small drawback, the book was bigger than my head and they only had copies in French. No, thank you. Perhaps later.

Fast-forward again, to me coming home this summer and trying to find ways to procrastinate for my summer class. Low and behold on a random shelf in my parents' house is 1Q84, this book was following me. I realized that something in that book needed to be in my head. The universe was telling me something. Those coincidences were too many to be mere coincidences.

So, I read the book. In the first chapter, a woman is stuck in a cab in traffic. She has somewhere that she has to be. The cab driver suggests an emergency staircase that would lead her to the street. From there, she could take the subway and not be late to her "meeting". While the woman is considering this option, the cab driver warns her that a move as drastic as this might change things irrevocably. The world on the the other side of the staircase might not be the one that she woke up in that morning. She does it anyway, and before she knows what happened, she is in a world with two moons.

I could not for the world of me figure out why this book was so important for me to read. Why was it that I noticed it in the bookstore? Or that my plane was late, leading me to a different train, leading me to meet this woman who recommended this author to me? OR, why was it that this very book that I had seen everywhere, and been recommended to read, was on my very own parents' bookshelf?? The answer to my questions may very well be that this book is a very popular book, but I do not choose to believe that. I think that it is asking EXACTLY the same question that Dr. Sexson posed in class: is the world different, or is it I who have been transformed?

Being back in Montana, after a year in another country, is like being in a world with two moons, or looking back on where I came from after hearing a lady's song that is more beautiful than the ocean. I love school and I love my friends, but it seems different then it was before I moved away for a year.

The jury is still out on the biggest question from "The Idea of Order at Key West": did Montana change, or if it is I that have done the changing?

First name: Postcard. Last name: Unpacked.

I vow to no longer rob this class of my thoughts. Deep Water, this one is for you.

The poor man's fingers froze into a claw that would take hours to restore to a recognizable shape. The workers were hard and fast, but they still spent weeks to rid the vines of the heavenly fruit. Looking up from their work from time to time, they would see the exquisite mansion on the top of the hill. The man who owned the grapes lived there. He was never seen, except for an occasional glimpse of a shadow. He never left the house. He never paid them a decent wage. His house was clean, but his dealings were dirty. Some said he was merely a phantom, others said his riches turned him recluse.

The day the world went black with ash, the end of their misery was not welcomed. Times were always tough before, but at least they had their lives.
Nothing remained but the bones of the workers and the ruins of the man's house. 

The people who come to see the wreckage know nothing of what it was like to live there. Although the harvest was trying, there were always the children to look to for hope. They played "hide and go seek" and raced up and down the vines. They were all oblivious to the impending doom.