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STOP WORRYING
Last month a snakecrawled up our downspouttrying to find shade orjust a place for an afternoon nap.I took his picture, askedan app what he wasand the app answered.The snake said “youcould have asked me,and I would have told youmy name is Hector,but all you cared aboutwas what species I was.It is always that waywith your…
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WHOSE FAULT?
You lay on the lanai paversin the shadow of the tableunder the watchful eyeand ever prodding pawof the cat into whose territoryyou have so boldly encroached.You say that it is not the faultof your kind that ours were evictedfrom the Garden, and of courseyou are correct, but it no longerreally matters, does it, allof us,…
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FOR RENE
“The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility… The fact that it is comprehensible is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein (1936) Cogitodice clatteragainsta cornerof the universe,rolling the bonesof a thousandgenerationsone slidesinto the black holevoida losernextplayerto the lineboxcarsstacked as cordwoodinto the pitrottingthe snakestaresat a halfeaten applehooded eyescloseHawkingpresses keysindicatingchuckling First Published in Ionosphere, Vol. 1, Issue…
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A PLEASURE
The phone rang as I stepped from the shower. Soon dry, I listened to the voice of my neighbor saying a long slithery snake was crawling up my gutter’s downspout. This I had to see and I did, phone camera in hand. He was about four feet long, kinked and moving slowly. He studied me,…
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THE SNAKE’S LAMENT
You realize that it getstiring always being the onewho they try to blamefor all manner of sinsand flat-out mistakes. I get the garden, but allI did was show them the apple,they decided to eat it despiteHis warning, so how is that on me? And do you know how hardit was for the wife and Ito…
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INTO THE BRUSH
I have carefully peeledback the skin of a hundred snakesand left their twisted formscurled around mesquiteas so many skirts. Canadia geesefollow carefully worn pathsacross an October skyundeterred by storm cloudsgiving chase from the west.A wolf wanders downfrom the tree line to the edgeof the highway. She can tastethe approach of winter,bitter on her tongue, her…
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KISO CUTS A SNAKE 正法眼蔵 四十三
Snakes, like coins,have both head and tail.If I cut a snake in two,have I two snakes,or none at all?Walk carefullyfor the spadethat cuts the snakecan dig an inescapable abyss. A reflection on case 43 of Dogen’s Shobogenzo Koans (True Dharma Eye)
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SNAKE, PRAY FOR US
In a time set aside for mourningwe easily remember those, lovedor despised, taken by age, disease,war or poverty and neglect. But trapped in our isolationwe should also pause and recallthe snake, condemned for offeringknowledge for which we were ill-equipped. Let us not forget the ram,whose only sin was to bein the wrong place at the…
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FORKED TONGUE
I can’t tell you how longit’s been since I’ve seena snake around here, mostlybecause my sense of timehas limits of a decade. I read that they are plentifulin the Everglades, huntedas an invasive species, whichprobably stands to reasonsince our hatred is by now of Biblical proportions, and wehave learned to love goats,so, it is the…
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MESA MORNING
Out here, he warned, you should always be on the lookout for snakes by day, not that they will go out of their way to attack you, but stray into their territory and the Western Diamondback will give you a quick lesson in awareness. They hide among the scrub sage and in the arroyos, but…
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an old writer and his words 