#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream
Cherry Blossoms and Window Into the Department of Justice Building, Washington, DC
This morning I happily went outside early - took my morning walk before spending the entire day inside at my writer's conference. I wasn't expecting to freeze in DC! I walked briskly down 9th Street toward Pennsylvania Avenue, without my dogs, without a plan, looking for inspiration, hoping to be moved and delighted by some unexpected city scene.
I discovered my surprises along the exterior walls of the Justice Department building. I walked four blocks of all four sides. Startlingly, cherry blossoms were in bloom in trees in front of windows! The guard told me this has been happening every February for years.
At the entrance you can read these words:
The Place of Justice is a Hallowed Place.
Tonight, arranging my photos here, reflecting on social justice, I find this moving poem, "a letter to my transgender daughter," by Rebecca Foust, and share this excerpt (or read the entire poem here):
“ . . . I know a girl like you
was knifed last week, another set aflame.
I know I lack the words, or all the words I say
are wrong. I know I’ll call and you won’t answer,
and still I’ll call. I want to tell you
you were loved with all I had, recklessly,
and with abandon, loved the way the cabbage
in my garden near-inverts itself, splayed
to catch each last ray of sun. And how
the feeling furling-in only makes the heart
more dense and green. Tonight it seems like
something one could bear.”
All photos and text copyright Kelly DuMar 2017