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Abandoned 11-Year2 #5        12 LR Mahara    12LR i-web

Nov  7  2004

I walk to the Arboretum, once again brown and dead at the entrance hill

I stop at the pine tree at the entrance—

I ask the Pine sentinel at entrance of arboretum

“What can I do about the election fraud??

“ Silence-, then

“You don’t need to do anything,

we’ll do it for you”

I’m  Pondering the riddle, Tree stares at me in silence.

I walk past the remnants of twisted red vines, they scream, “We are hurting”.

I ask the trees at beginning of path past pond,

What can I do about the voter fraud?

They cry, agitatedly,

“We are hurting, we can’t help you”

I step over the brambles to begin climbing the upper path.

A deer kicks up twice & jumps high meters over the right bank a bit higher on path,

Squirrel on right way up in tree above jumps  a few meters across branches & keep on going.

I take off my glasses, all the leaves become clearer

I try on my glasses- it blurs,

I keep off my glasses, enjoy all the wide thin large small tall short textures, amber colors, green leaves at sides some red & twigs with white fluff. The larger depth is still no wind. Leaves overlap themselves, cover the path

I ask the leaves,

What shall I do about the election fraud?

They say “Do as we do. Watch us”.

I think how the leaves danced down to here. As if they read my mind, they say, “We’ll dance it for you”.

I think of how they sit here still, now slowly timelessly composting back to earth.

They repeat “Watch us. Do as we do”.

I get to the singing running wandering stream, I ask, “What should I do about the election fraud?”

They say, “Watch us run our course”

OK! I watch the course meander and how it has changed since I was here last. I watch how active it is despite little rain.

I cross the stream over roots & the manmade earth covered culvert that still has plenty of rocks and roots and fallen seedpods to scrunch underfoot, veer to the left path back, I stop and look up at the mass and  tallness of it all, ask the wooded arboretum in sum, “What shall I do about the voter fraud?”

“Come visit us again, like now, with your silence”. “Yes, come in silence”.

“Come back. Keep coming back”.

“This way it will be done”.

I find the path back, go past a small stream coming down under rocks and leaves, hear the stream but don’t see it,  I look right and see the new  ferns, I ask, What shall I do about the voter fraud?

They answer, “Watch how we do it.” – they are re-growing in mid fall when all else is dying down.

I look left and see hummocks of mosses so bright green in contrast to the ambers. I ask the moss, “What must I do about the election fraud?”

They say, “Get a grip”!

I’m slightly taken aback. I look bemused, wondering what they mean. They repeat,

“Watch us. Watch how we get a grip.” I see that hey have gained grip on more hummocks, how they have spread in small rounds, and jumped ahead.

I follow down to the ecological recycled plastic walk, noticing the crisp wetland leaves in their fine and coarse, with depths and accuracy of detail. I enjoy not wearing my glasses. I try them on again to see the difference, they blur everything to a one ness. I keep them off again.

I ask the plants, What shall I do about the voter fraud?

They say “We have all the time we need”

I wonder if they mean “we, I, have all the time I need??”

I come out to the chemically burned hillside, the trees shout, “We are hurting!”

I stop under a thicket of evergreens to rest beside them- they edge this wasted hill of brown. When stopped, I see a large bird through the thicket moving closer to me. I stop to wait to see if other birds move closer. A smaller one at right moves in, another at left moves rather close and lower, all unseen except for when they moved I see their black shadowness moving in the space of the trees.

I ask the birds, What should I do about the election fraud??” I feel they are listening closely.

They answer, “We’ll dance it with you.” ’We’ll stay with you”.

I walk towards the entrance pine and stop, pull up my hands as in prayer, (my usual thank you mode) and say thank you to the tree.

It is stoic. Silent again. Then it sends an embrace.

Again it speaks, “You know”.

I walk the road back to the housing development, telling the trees there “I will not ask you because you are hurting”, They cry out, “We are hurting”.

Two deer jump kind of in front of me to the right, with white tails filling my sight, as if they jumped into my eyes, they’re actually about two-three meters away are next to my garden behind the garage studio flanked by the still green forsythia, They stop. Look back at me & don’t move.

I say ”Hello, I won’t disturb you”. They watch me. I slowly walk past them and at left, walk inside the garage.            -Coco Go