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Yellow jacket bite on bare belly
Wake up
Sky clears
Human going wrong way
Runs into doe with two yearlings
On strait hoof-cut deer path.
Eyes deep pools. Watching,
Unafraid, she steps calmly
Down and around, young ones
Skittering after.
This world—absolutely pure
As is. Behind the fear,
Vulnerability. Behind that
Sadness, then compassion
And behind that the vast sky.
Returning I cross the stream
A snake, upright, S-curved
Slit eyes a-glitter
Stares straight ahead.
Tiny black red-tipped forked
Tongue flickering like flame.
We sit eye to eye
Seconds, minutes, ages pass.
Snake doesn’t blink.
I do.
Impeccable attention.
This is how to look at the world
You are returning to.
Snake doesn’t move. I do.
I bow, inhaling sweet pine resin
And pass back over the rushing stream
To the other side.
∞