it's all terribly interesting!

my translation of an abstract by the inestimable Katherine Parys:

Common salvinia, Salvinia minima Baker, is an aquatic invasive fern that obstructs waterways and impacts water quality throughout the southeastern United States. In an effort to establish populations for classical biological control, the weevil, Cyrtobagous salviniae Calder and Sands, was released at multiple sites across Louisiana. Many of the release sites were lost due to a variety of ecological and anthropological disturbances. In 2008, C. salviniae was found to have successfully overwintered on S. minima in Gramercy, Louisiana. Attack by Cyrtobagous salviniae significantly increased the number of damaged terminal buds and decreased the fresh weight biomass of S. minima.

La salvinia común, Salvinia mínima Baker, es un helecho acuático invasor que obstruye vías fluviales y afecta la calidad de agua por el sureste de los Estados Unidos. Para fundar poblaciones de control biológico clásico el gorgojo Cyrtobagous salviniae Calder y Sands fue introducido en múltiples sitios por toda Louisiana. Fueron perdidos muchos sitios de introducción debido a varias alteraciones ecológicas y antropológicas. En 2008 fue notado que C. salviniae invernó exitosamente en S. mínima en Gramercy, Louisiana. El ataque de Cyrtobagous salviniae aumentó apreciablemente la cantidad de brotes terminales dañados y disminuyó la biomasa fresca de S. minima.

given that common salvinia is one of several invasive species found in Louisiana waterways, I can't help but feel like I'm in an awesome biological fantasy, (albeit a bit more understated). Ms. Parys has also done research on the impact of red imported fire ants on the weevil mentioned above(PDF link), the abstract for which I had the fortune to translate as well.

ain't science grand?

he's gonna babble about trolleys

the six sentence structure makes for nice, quick prose when you've the attention span of a goldfish.

your incipient megalomania is arresting, I confess. but I can't remember your name. is it that you haven't told me?
no matter, do be still. I am trying to draw the back of your head in pen, and I haven't margin for error. not with the streetcar rocking so.

don't eat the flowers

In my chest, there are a thousand blossoms of venom holding springtime court, and outside is the hateful blue that locks out the sun, drugs line and form into dripping wrecks, turns asphalt into the skin on mephitic rivers of pudding. I had cooked, and how I had turned the fire up and attended the slaughter with lemon and salt, seared its skin like I longed to sear the skin of the boy in my kitchen, so tempting and warm that I opened the door to go smoke. even with the oven on, the aroma so thick and toothsome, I only cooked and ate, and I fed but never tasted him, and I struggled and burned, smoked and guttered right out. in the choked ember tint of such an evening the poison garden begs for wind so I slept with the window open; the kitchen went stony, the skin left lonely in the fridge. the lullalby is nasturtium and nightshade cackling at the sad excuse for day that follows, weak as dishwater and the grease of yesterday's attempts atop it. ponder, indeed, if there's any call to ever clean a kitchen again, if particular flowers could grow in a bombed-out stove, make for decent seasoning when properly dried...

>> fabula amoris sex in sententiis
>> scripta 6 dec MMXII
>> pro puero quo apud me cenandum vinit at basia mihi non tulit.