Petting Mlady this morningI notice she has no eyelashes.It’s like they migrated north,into eye whiskers that complementthe ones coming out of her cheeks.Did eye lashes or whiskers comefirst in the evolutionary scheme?It really doesn’t matter, but it’s fun to wonder about as shesits and washes her face.

Seventy and sunny all day long.I’m transported to Santa Barbarabut for a moment as threadsspin out, of good and bad,elephant-spider memories,and, with sheer will, retract.Oh that there was a wayto split memory atoms, to senddark ones back to sun’s furnaceto be alchemized to light; a wayto be returned as undistractedbright.

“Mind over matter? If you don’t mind, it don’t matter,”Mikey says as he eats fire-roastedshish-kebobbed mouse on, “Alone.”He’s doing it to win half a millionto buy services for his non-verbalautistic young son.I have to ask myself, what do I get out of watching him do it.

First day’s a fluke, but the fluke’sbeen here 3 days, which meansit’s a new way. Eighties left in dust.Hello sixties, my friend.Real air washes through windows,across my skin, into my lungs.I can breathe soft and easy again.

slaying the beastI needed to know my weight.Why doesn’t matter.The digital scale’s 9v was dead,which shows how long it’s beensince I faced the horror of the beast.When oooo marched across screenagain, I clenched my jaw, imaginedmyself as a cloud – and stepped on.Twenty-seven pounds … less.Body dysmorphia is a bitch, but today this bitch put…

The rooftop garden has paved pathways, sculptures, ground covers, grasses,water beds for lotus and lily,and bog beds for pitcher plants.The scent of dead, tricked bugsdraws big, black robber waspswho brace their back legs atthe curve of pitcher plant mouthsand try to pluck out dissolvingcorpses without falling in.https://www.meijergardens.org