Letters to the Editor
We welcome your opinions and letters – with name and address. We will edit when necessary. Include your name, address and phone number for verification. Mail them to Bay Weekly, P.O. Box 358, Deale, MD 20751 •
E-mail them to [email protected]. or submit your letters on line, click here
A Poet’s Ornithological Report
Dear Bay Weekly:
What I saw while hanging out the wash: four huge birds, solid ebony. My first thought: ospreys, tarred, delayed.
But the osprey pair, who rent the piebald sycamore across our marsh, and never more than three at once, head south September 15, gray snowbirds till the Ides of March. They always keep to schedule. So they’ve left.
Today, to show that old lease is up, turkey vultures spread wet wings to dry, and stake their claim.
The birds shift their positions for a better pose; shake their wings like cloaks or shrouds.
I drop the wash atop a pile of leaves.
Darn: My camera batteries are dead. By the time I’ve found, replaced with fresh AAs in a 69 of plus-and-minus ends — it takes three tries to turn out right — the birds have flown the airy coop in which I tried to frame them.
I scan the sky, and question, Did you come for me?
Not yet, you greedy birds, not till my lease is up.
I shake dirt and bugs from dripping wash, pin clothes to the line, defiant flags.
Another raptor — head white, tail white, wingspread wide — sweeps above my head but does not land.
Now autumn’s here, the osprey gone, eagles have returned to rule the proverbial roost.
–Elisavietta Ritchie, Broomes Island
In the Eye of the Beholder
Dear Bay Weekly:
I look for Bay Weekly every Thursday and find it very timely, entertaining and well done.
Jane Elkin’s article on handwriting analysis was interesting. As she says, it is somewhat spurious to vote for a president based upon his handwriting. I would no more vote for a good writer than buy a car based upon a ouija board message.
Ms. Elkin did not discuss that Sen. McCain is left-handed or that he had several bones broken in his limbs while a POW.
Handwriting is somewhat revealing, although subjective to the revealer. It is great fun at parties and the boardwalk.
I was a little surprised at the cover of the newspaper on Sept 4-10. The glue and paste job of a smiling Sen. Obama and a scowling Sen. McCain leads one to a question of credibility.
–R. J. Philburn, Edgewater
Thanks for Pendleton’s Words on Michelle Robbins Saunders
Dear Bay Weekly:
I just read Gary Pendleton’s lovely tribute to our Fairhaven Book Club buddy Michelle Robbins Saunders [Earth Journal: No. 37: Sept. 11]. It brought tears: a very peaceful way to acknowledge her.
Last night at book club we raised our wine glasses in salute to Michelle. Like Gary, I thought there would be more time. We had more books to read, more stories of our children to share, more experimental dishes to concoct and more wine to drink. I feel sure there are similar gatherings held honoring Michelle, acknowledging the wit and laughter she brought to each.
–Gail Martinez, Fairhaven
