we went up north to get an apple pie and a mammogram before the solstice and saw this bald eagle in a cage. in the next door cage a guy was laying down with his face on a piece of carpet smooshing a bobcat. then a coyote pacing, then an owl. inside the old farm building was a yellow python that came from living estranged in a part of a house where they threw a rabbit once a week, now in a glass case around the size of the body coiled narrowly. they said that's about the space required. i woke up at 2.37 thinking about how things we see make us feel. on the way people were driving so fast we felt terror, and on the way back it was quieter and more congested and we saw a truck towing a big black motorcycle with a glass funeral box behind it. everyone going in the same direction in their own vehicles from different places to the same end. we ate a piece of pie and watched alphaville. a character said you never understand anything and in the end it kills you. anyway i'm not going to be more articulate at this hour, but it's almost the solstice and birthday.