The lemon tree breathes light, each blossom a small lantern, and the bee moves among them like a keeper of secrets. What it takes, it gives— though not to me, not directly. Still, I stand in the fragrance feeling included in a mystery I do not own.
Mailboxes in a Small New Mexico Town — Image by kenne
Each box is a story painted over rust— names fading, but never gone. Abuela still checks hers at sunrise, like the sun might bring a letter from yesterday. We are a people of waiting, of holding onto envelopes like prayers, addressed to hope.
We mistake the shadow for evidence when it is closer to fiction. It proposes a structure the room does not possess. And yet, once seen, it is difficult to return to the unmarked surface without feeling something has been lost.
Gila Woodpecker on the Patio Tree — Image by kenne
there he is again— clinging sideways to the tree like a bad decision that won’t let go. tap-tap-tap— no rhythm, no apology. and I laugh, because that’s life, isn’t it? just you and your stubborn little beak against something harder.
Watch him long enough and you begin to feel embarrassed—
all our tools, our gloves, our careful distance, while he leans in bare-faced to the red fruit of the Prickly Pear Cactus, accepting risk like the weather.
A better citizen of this place than most of us passing through.