Sunday, May 01, 2011

Counting Mosaics


Took painful walk to park. Main objective was to pick up some fresh eucalyptus opercula or maybe that is operculum. Um, guess I will take a picture rather than explain. I scratch them, releasing the scent, hold to nose for a nice whiff. At home, laying them in front of window, often catch a breeze born scent or just as I walk by where they lay. Very pleasant and peaceful.

Seems no matter where I go in Long Beach I am besieged by memories. Sat on one of the long rows of benches staring at the bandstand shell, "You slept there. You actually slept there," I think. An image returns, sitting in dark, eating a thick burger, black spider on wrapper. How did it get inside there? Just unwrapped. Do not remember the rest of that night, sitting in the dark. I am quite sure I did not toss the burger and the wrapper. Vague recollection of looking for the spider. Did not carry flashlight, did I try to use cellphone as one? I do recall being nervous about curling up in the corner and going to sleep that night, thoughts of that big, fat spider crawling on me.

I also sat under the band-shell roof for hours waiting for rain to stop. Or at least for wind driven rain to slow down, enough to walk and not get soaked through layers of clothing. One of the things I did while sitting on the damp concrete was to count squares in the mosaics. I have problem counting squares be it mosaics or number of stories in buildings, another homeless activity. Um, that called to mind, David, who said he did that too ~ counting the number of floors in buildings.

Not sure if I counted them all, I started over. And over again. Until I came up with the same number twice.

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