#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream
Charlie on the trestle bridge
"The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry's cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I'll put a trinket on."
- Emily Dickinson, Nature 27 - Autumn
It shall be a walk today, I decide. Not a run. I will walk and take my time and take pictures of what draws me in. Sunshine. Another gold-warm day in the meadow and woods. I cross the trestle bridge and go down to the river’s edge on the bank below. I hear a bark/cry. Charlie is having a panic attack. He hasn’t followed me over the trestle. Who knows why today he hesitates; most days trots confidently over. I backtrack, he sees me, and comes gingerly across. We go through the cheerful meadow and circle back to cross the trestle toward home. I cross, and again. He won’t. he whimpers. I call him. Won’t budge. I cross back, pat his head, and he follows me along. He’s fine. I hear from a journal, the acceptance of a poem I wrote about Martha’s Vineyard, a summer poem. When Frank stops by my office we decide to call the agent and secure our rental for next August in Chilmark. We hope it will work out. We drive to the market and the same moment I mention my brother, who lives on the Vineyard, my phone barks (the ringtone I have for him) and it’s my brother, of course, as if he heard me. What he wants is to know if I’m going to swim. He’s nearby and we discuss times to meet; we can’t swim together today, maybe tomorrow. I work on my new poem that doesn’t feel like it’s working. Then, I go to Farm Pond because it’s over 70 degrees out. My brother meets me int the parking lot for a hug. He will swim after his conference call, but I must go ahead, and I realize, diving in without hesitating, that I am conditioned now to this temp. It’s quite pleasant and invigorating. If I keep swimming, day by day, I wonder if the water temp will change to gradually that I’ll be used to it. We shall see. I wave goodbye to my brother in the parking lot, turn on the car heat. Hope we can swim together tomorrow, this pond we have grown up in.
