Kaleidoscope Tales
Disclaimer: I do not own or write the real CSI: Miami. Any questions?
Author's note: This is an experiment; I'm not sure how well it will work, or how long it will last. A series of vignettes to satisfy my current obsession with Eric and Calleigh, and to share some of my favorite poetry. If you want to know where you can find a particular poem, or if you don't understand a poem or how it relates to the scene, send me a message and I'll tell you. I chose the title in part in homage to the Japanese poetry anthology Tales of Ise, which inspired the format of poems embedded in prose. The word "kaleidoscope" is derived from the Greek words kalos (beautiful), eidos (shape), and scopeion (to look). I feel it's a fitting symbol for the shifting relationship between Calleigh Duquesne and Eric Delko.
Sources: The Kokinshū, translated by Laurel Rasplica Rodd and Mary Catherine Henkenius; Everyman's Library Pocket Poets' Love Poems, edited by Peter Washington.
Anonymous, Kokinshu 483:
If unlike these strands
braided tightly together
to carry jewels
we can never meet, what thread
will hold my spirit to life?
Eric Delko had no way of knowing how much this job would change his life.
The nervous new CSI was being given a tour of the lab by Tim Speedle. "And this is Firearms. The first thing you should know about our firearms expert is that it's never a good idea to sneak up on her."
Eric wasn't surprised to recognize the woman in the white lab coat. He'd been hoping to see her.
"Calleigh," Speedle said, "this is the new guy, Eric."
"We've met. Delko, right?" she said, taking off one glove to shake his hand.
"Yeah. I didn't think you'd remember me."
"I never forget a face. Or a bad pick-up line," she replied with a teasing smile.
Speedle rolled his eyes. "We'll let you get back to work. I still need to show the kid the QD Lab and the morgue."
"Have fun," she called after them in her tintinnabular Southern drawl.
"You hit on her?" Speedle asked when they were out of earshot.
"What, you haven't?"
"I know when someone's out of my league."
"No guts, no glory," Eric countered.
He scoffed. "Trust me, junior, you're not ready to handle anything of that caliber yet."
The encounter slipped to the back of Eric's mind as he continued the tour of the lab. It was, after all, his first day on the job, and he had a lot to take in.
Christina Rosetti, "I Wish I Could Remember"
Era gia l'ora che volge il desio. -Dante.
Ricorro al tempo ch'io vi vide prima. -Petrarca.
I wish I could remember that first day,
First hour, first moment of your meeting me,
If bright or dim the season, it might be
Summer or Winter for aught I can say;
So unrecorded did it slip away,
So blind was I to see and to foresee,
So dull to mark the budding of my tree
That would not blossom yet for many a May.
If only I could recollect it, such
A day of days! I let it come and go
As traceless as a thaw of bygone snow;
It seemed to mean so little, meant so much;
If only now I could recall that touch,
First touch of hand in hand - Did one but know!