<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 14pt;" class="">The Rattlesnake - From Apoala Mexico - </span></i><i class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt;" class="">To Tatyana</span></i><i class=""><span style="font-size: 14pt;" class=""></span></i></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </p><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">My sunned body eases into indolence,</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">I give thanks for all the gifts it granted me.</div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </p><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">Yes, body, </div><div style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">after allowing me to try calls, shrieks, grunts and babbles,</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">all sounds my tongue could handle,</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">you taught me to articulate my first human words,</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">you taught me to stand up from the animal stance</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">and walk like a grown-up on two yet unstable legs,</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">you gifted me with the sense of smell to bask in fragrance</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">of sight to capture every small display of nature, </div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">of taste that transforms every morsel into a delectable nectar </div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">of hearing to catch the sounds of life resonating all around</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 1in; text-indent: 0.5in; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">and proclaiming <i class="">la joie de vivre.</i></div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">Thank you my mortal coil for all of it. </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </p><div style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">This evening, instead of an arduous sunset hike with family</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">I’ll recline on the flagstones that absorbed the warmth of the day</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">and are gently releasing it in the twilight.</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">We’ll lie there you and me,</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class=""> dreaming up abundance for all beings,</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">extracting the immense tenderness in all things. </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </p><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">Thus we dreamt together my body and me</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">until a voice coming from the returned hikers jolted us out of our reverie:</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class=""><i class="">Mama, you are lying right next to a rattlesnake</i>!</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">And there it was, secreted in the dusk,</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">a young rattle curled up a few feet from me</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">peacefully enjoying the balminess of the evening, </div><div style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">dreaming along with me.</div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </p><div style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">This story has a sad ending.</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">To protect other cabin dwellers</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">my daughter denounced the snake to the tribal custodian</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">who hunted the young rattle and killed it in the morning.</div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </p><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">For months I mourned that little reptile, </div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">full of remorse and regrets for a most tender friend I had betrayed,</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">until one day </div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">I came to know that the creature was sent to teach me </div><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">how to love unreservedly in the acceptance of what is.</div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </p><div style="font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">And I still carry in the most sacred space </div><div style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class="">the dreamtime rattle of the tribe:</div><div style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class=""><i class="">Everything is totally significant </i></div><div style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class=""><i class="">and</i></div><div style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" class=""><i class="">absolutely unimportant. . .</i></div></div><br class=""><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Jun 12, 2024, at 07:38, balldinger <<a href="mailto:balldinger@gmail.com" class="">balldinger@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" class=""><div dir="auto" class=""><div dir="auto" class="">Hey Riantee, </div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class="">Can you post your Rattlesnake poem on the Spirit Express? I really enjoyed it and would love to read it.</div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class="">Thanks! </div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class="">~ Ed</div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div><div id="composer_signature" dir="auto" class=""><div style="font-size:12px;color:#575757" dir="auto" class="">Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone</div></div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div></div></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></body></html>