Tu Fu readers: Don't forget to add your comments to Monday's post; David has already shared some fascinating ideas about parallels to Hemingway that are certainly worth discussing. Because you probably won't hear from me for a day or so (I'll be on the road fetching Boys back to Boy Land), you have plenty of time to get your thoughts together before Sunday, when I plan to leave my own response to the poems and your comments.

The weather here has been difficult: very hot, very wet, very hard to find a gap to mow grass or dry laundry. As a result, my yard and garden are as tropical as they ever get: which is to say, lush and lanky, with too many weeds and not enough parrots. The red dahlias have the color and sheen of velvet bordello furniture; the lavender bee balm flowers look like tiny Muppets that have been stage-electrocuted; the Japanese beetles are extras in an X-rated cast-of-thousands epic. The place churns with ham actors and dramatic stage lighting and melodramatic plots.

There's much to be said for a quiet shady city street, with a single pot of geraniums, outside seating, and no bloodthirsty deerflies. If you've got it, enjoy it.