[Thespiritexpress] Read at on Tuesday: BirthdayCreature

[balldinger]

I love how a rearranging (twisted) mind works.  I'm personally familiar with how it does and doesn't.  I also love how this poem paces itself through nature's spaces calling me in to remind me, "We are part of each other." Thanks for sharing another masterpiece with us, Riantee, by letting the "creature" speak.Gratefully,~ EdOn Sat, May 27, 2023 at 12:13 PM Riantee Rand via Thespiritexpress <thespiritexpress at lists.mcn.org> wrote:



















The Creature on My
Birthday I sit
perfectly still at a confluence of two streamsmy feet
caressing the water where a
twisted branch churns the
water into foam. At the place
where moss swaddle the massive rocksthe
quivering ferns plot a new flow and the
sound of water turns into distinctive voices;when I
listen too intensely, the voices
become sounds again. A black fish
suddenly shoots across a deep pool clearing a
path through my consciousness.When it
leaves my vision I catch sight of a furry creaturenow swimming
towards my leg.Its thick
brown coat is dripping,wet strands
partly hide its tiny ears,it has the
tail of a swimmer, the eyes of a hunter,it is here,
right here, in the eye
of the present,on the head
of a pin,so close to
my truth it burns a
hole into what I called my reality. Through that
window I catch sight of a new meuntroubled
as a forest,limpid as
water,surrendered
to what is.My leg is a
tree trunkthat can
readily accept being climbed on.I am dispassionate
and present,I do not
need a name for the creature,I do not
need a name for myself. As the
animal starts climbing my leg
a branch suddenly snaps and startles me.My mind
rapidly takes hold of the situation:What
foolishness. My leg is no
tree trunk, I am no
forest. I am made of
flesh that can be
easily torn. Horror
stricken at my transformationthe animal
jumps back,and with an
impossible twist of its spine,plunges
backward into the water and swims out of sight. The mind rearranges
the worldto make
believethat it has control. 






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