Strolling along Dogwood Acres Road on my return from shopping at the co-op (Seventh Generation dryer sheets, potato/Roquefort salad, Blood Orange Pellegrino, souvenir tee) in Southern Village, a Chapel Hill neighborhood, I saw a pretty sight--a young woman with a row of butterfly tattoos across her upper back. She was standing with her dog who had her eye on the ducks in a pond. I caught up with them and said, "I like your butterflies!" Then I added, "Oh, I like your necklace, too. And how about those socks!" The dog turned to find out who I was so I couldn't resist one last compliment, "Your dog is not half bad, either." The young woman smiled. I told her I was visiting and would she mind if I took a picture for my blob. I really like putting a kind of spiritual beauty out into the world. I felt these two had some. She said her name was Julie and the dog was Ellie.
They posed nicely and appeared to be quite comfortable with this unusual encounter, although I had not seen another person on my hour walk. After a friendly goodbye, I started looking at the rural mailboxes to find one I thought would suit Julie and Ellie. Sure enough, there was one--peace symbol amidst the azaleas.
Speaking of beauty, I recently had an interesting dream. For the first time, a poem came to me whole. I could see the lines written out on a page of old Victorian stationery. I thought I would revise it but I decided it was very like Yeats' "automatic writing" during which time he apparently went into a trance and let some otherwordly entity take over. So here is my dream poem in all its simplicity. It came as a result, I believe, of having feasted with Arlette. She had been depressed when I arrived but perked up immensely by the time I left. You may revise it to suit your point of view.
THE ENEMIES OF SADNESS
Shared solitude
Fish stew
Bus schedule
Bird song
"And how are you?"
