Madre (Life Notes)


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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/21/West_of_Mount_Tam.JPG

Woodland hills of Bolinas Ridge west of the summit of Mount Tamalpais: photo by Hydrogen Iodide, 25 November 2005



Like a big tired buffalo

or ox

Mount Tam kneels beneath

a glittering ceiling

her blue and green

flanks rest, her shaggy

head settles

and drinks from the lagoon.

The fur of her underbelly is burnt and brown

cars wind down it

like ticks. The top

of her head is yellow and balding

except where a few squiggly redwood tips

crest it. She rests, in the blazing

light of a June afternoon, as I do.


Life is not conditional. IF

is only a

half-life.

A whole life –- yours, mine, anyone's –-

can pass by in an instant. Hers

continues, like a music without notes,

unless you really strain

your ears to hear them, and maybe even then.



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7e/Mount_Tamalpais%2C_CA%2C_2005.JPG

Dying pine tree near the summit of Mount Tamalpais: photo by Hydrogen Iodide, 25 November 2005

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