#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream

be silly, make this day a tree
leaning over the river eternity
and fuss about in its branches.

~ Excerpt from “This Day,” by Jimmy Santiago Baca

Every walk in this October foliage is splendor of color and sound. Feet shooshing through color on the ground, piles and layers of leaves. And all the reflections of the branches on the surfaces and in the ripples. Charlie seems not to be feeling chipper and will go to the vet Saturday. After my long walk I take a shower in the outdoor shower because I like being outdoors still and the leaves on the trees make music while I stand under the water listening. And because there are men in my bathroom, men in my closet, men on my stairs and in my halls and I cannot find privacy indoors. Everything is coming along, but truly, I had to slip into my daughter’s office, which is my guest room, most recently my bedroom, and get dressed while she was at the table working. Despite all this I had a productive day with clients and with my poetry friend who met on Zoom with me to share poems. I made meatballs for the Special One and played outside in the garden with him as he got dark and cold and finally, finally, he was ready to go indoors with me for his dinner. I had such a happy dream this morning I woke smiling. Now, the interesting thing was that in the dream I decided I was no longer afraid of snakes. Not even of being bitten by one. And I was bitten by a snake, three times in the dream, and the snake wasn’t poisonous and the bite was painful but tolerable. Not afraid of snakes! How wonderful to be in my dream and be bitten and not bothered.