Dear Diary . . . day by day

Thursday, July 20th - Happy Birthday Mom!
I want
I want to take a fast boat
to Peru
And peruse ancient
Indian dwellings
Wander down
the wrong side of
Machu Picchu
and lose myself
in jungle jumble
Fight thru vines
and touch all the
pretty colors
- especially the insects
and the red/orange frogs
bright blue beetles
and yellow/black snakes
I want to wade thru
brown water
emerging with shiny black
suckers on my
smooth white thighs
an anklet of leeches
I want to roll
in electric green leaves
leaving no leaf
untrampled, uncrushed
all my bare skin
painted in plant juice
I want to discover
a lost village
where the natives will
see
my shivering
blotched
rash-riddled
red-and-white-white
body
and get over the contrast
and set me in a hammock
outside the Shaman's hut.
I want to learn
which leaves remove
boils
(and what caused them)
I want to learn
what roots to chew
when
I want to go
down
into the tribe's
collective unconscious
with my medicine-woman
shaman-friend
and I want to see
that I'm there
too.
I want to wander out
again
not speaking
eyes focused on a point
that doesn't exist here
I want to return
unable to commute
properly
because I let everyone
else
go ahead - they're in such
a hurry -
I want to
stare
uncomprehending
at my taxes
and bills
freeweights
public transportation
I want to listen to
the radio
and make no sense of
the issues of the day
let alone the commercials
I want to forget how to buy
how to turn on a TV
drive a car
answer the phone's ring
page my friends
And then
I'll wander down the wrong side of the Berkeley Hills
and up
and make my home
in a fallen redwood tree
close to the dark earth
in its cool underbelly
And then
if you wish
you can find me there
I'll put you in
my hammock
and show you how
for every poison oak rash
there's another plant
that cures it.
Exercise log:
Lifted weights: back and bicep day. And abs. And 20 very boring minutes on the treadmill without a book.
Writing log:
Finished the Thirds story. Do I now revise something, or crank out a new piece?
I'm currently reading:
The Infinity Box by Kate Wilhelm
Slowly reading:
Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany

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