i Wear

  Someone has removed the foil ovals from eyewear and joined them crosswise, so the silver shows on the front and back and you can catch partial glimpses of the gold that is on the reverse side. Pick of the Litter! They don’t mean anything, it was just a gesture, an action that created this that was discarded and in fine print also reads FOLD TO HERE. I am a lamb.

   There are no herons that I can see this morning, they wear their feathers elsewhere or they wear invisible suits or i’m just not seeing correctly. What I do see is a footprint, a pathling that comes in the shape of a large shoe or boot print left in the soft mud that froze overnight with water in it that froze into patterns of ice mullions that are beggin to be filled in with stained glass colors. The pattern is a deconstructed grid, reminiscent of Mondrian’s early sketches and abstractions of tree branches. The forms are hashmarks and triangles and parallelograms and rays and broken rays, like early Cubists produced.

   Had also found, near the balance beam, a metal coil ostensible remains of jewelry and a bit of sycamore bark. On the road again, pass and am passed by Yarde Metals truck with its steel lettering on the side of the flatbed: STEEL, ALUMINUM STAINLESS. each letter of each word cut out in capital letters, the truck is marked with the numerals 598 and the odometer on the Sleepymobile reads 121512, which has a nice balance to it. I am on my way to a memorial service. I wear mostly black.

Playlist

  on XPN included Simon and Garfunkel Hazy shade of winter. The Left Bank’s ”Walk Away Renée” and a piece by Pearl Jam.

   The morning sun, partly obscured by translucent clouds of vapor, is white orb.

   No herons along the section of creek that I walk today, just the outline of an immense heart. It measures in circumference 30 of my sneaker feet walking end to end heel to toe and four hats with long strings and one hat across at its widest point, making it nine feet. Its location is out from under the shadow and overhang of red bridge, next to the small hemlock tree and trail marker with the Berks county shape. The warming temperatures make the snow melt into the grass, hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away.

Cloak and Dagger Type

   Two keyboard hearts <3 <3 are drawn into the fluffy ivory snow, toward the right end of the creek side bench near red bridge. The bench is a half-round tree trunk, planked a foot or so above the ground.

   The earth is enveloped and enshrouded with foggy mist, giving the morning a mysterious cloak and daguerreotype effect.

   From this moisture-rich white shroud a blue heron flies, taking off a few steps away from the seven marker. A rippling ring in the shallow water shows the spot from which it departed.

   A silvery Mazda Tribute wears a foot-and-a-half long bandage decal low on the rear passenger side door. The vehicle is parked in the seventh spot west of the intersection of Fifth and Franklin streets, outside the Main building of the Reading Public Library, from which the author of this blog now writes.

Tundra

   Tussock after tussock of stiff frozen grass along the road captures the rays of sun without thawing. The earth seems bare. The land is not altogether treeless, but the trees and shrubs are leafless, and this makes the landscape look barren while in winter repose and reminds me of the tundra.

    Walking today by Blue Marsh Lake and the Squirrel Run nature trail. No squirrels were in evidence. No herons are seen. The water near shaley shore is topped with thin ice. The soil retains water that has solidified into quartz-like crystal veins that break under foot and become something else altogether, whole growths of crunchy glassy jewels. 

   Recently saw a book of snowflake photographs published by Dover books, Bentley the author, that showed many six-sided figures of unique snow bits. It was fascinating and captivating as Blossfeld nature studies, only different.

   In the city, the two black and white kittens have been missing for many days; a new grey and white kitten has been slinking along side its mother, a black and white street smart and tough cat. Only the older grey kitten remains near the studio and needs taming.  All three came to eat on the back porch this afternoon.

Neopolitan Mastiff

  Puppies for sale – not exactly ice cream – the blue grey dogs make interesting metropolitan pets and the ramp-up advertising sign must have had a number didn’t quite catch as was looking to merge onto Penn street. Neopolitan: Pink white and brown. Strawberry vanilla and chocolate.

    The red and white house on north third street has a small artificial wreath around one of the clay sun ornaments, so the face of Sol looks fringed not in fur but in fir. No heron to report – the mastiffs are heron colored though.

8337

Norfolk Southern, black horse, white horse where are Yin and Yang? walk this morning to the first cardinal past the nine marker and then discovered the first heron, standing in the creek at a spot along the near shore where the water reached halfway up its legs. It was active in a rococo position, ess curves and voluptuousness as it preened and picked its feathers in between remaining alert for fish.

   The path was full of cardinals at one bend near the mill bridge, first one brilliant male, two females of lesser light and a trillion more to liven up the monochromatic grey-brown branches and trunks of the winter forest.

   A heron in pennant position also fishes from below the old sheep farm. It stands in the water at a place near the base of the old and moldy steps set into the steep incline.

   A lost glove was hung in a prickly shrub.

   The words of the day are bill pay.

Burn,tout

Y Tuesday reads the sign at mall. Why

 

Friday the M in a motel sign was lit and on Monday the MO shone and little else.

At the men’s wear store, the EAR is removed and mostly you see WRHOUSE, like in Texas.

Let there be light and economy.

 

Happy New Year’s Heron

   There is a heron in the meadow, several yards up and away from the creek, taking a sunbath. Its angle of repose is that of a sentinel, almond body, fish eye and fringy beard with tin snip bill and a relaxed necklessness. It stands on one leg and is unafraid of having me walk past.

   The tiny island that is jumble island, downstream of red bridge has now collected and amassed enough formerly floating junk, primarily in the form of treek trunks and limbs, that it looks like a ship. I see no heron in the water. A hawk zipped past my car when I arrived; in its talons was a fresh meal, limp rodent or small dark bird.

   Along the path is a nice looking fish shaped piece of sycamore bark and on the overpass a box truck with the Bimbo snacks logo and graphics flashes northward. This morning is sunny and pleasant – some shadows at the park barn declare sunny squares and wavy edges. Over night the strong winds carried away things that were not tied down and light enough to be transported. Greetings of the New Year 2012 to all. It is a good year for health.

Bernieres

, a morning walk!   Finally two upwards of forty Canada geese swam in the creek in twenty foot radius to the heron.eep. many below the farm that used to keep shng teritoyueron in the first mile, one presiding over a fish.

   The second heron stood along the north shore facing south, about ten feet below the path at water’s edge and the black and white markings on its head were sharp and distinct and blended well with its natural slate color, its feathery breast feathers and beard hung like icicles, although the temperature was more springlike than arctic. There were no other birds or geese around this heron, a quarter mile upstream from the sighting of the other, and it stood in the eastern daylight and at first it reminded me of a horse, its hair was fine as frog’s hair.

    Heron number three was smack in the middle of the creek fishing, in a noce supple strong pose about to strike, and then it struck a pennant pose but it did not stab at the water or anything in it it then cranes its neck around to its right and for a moment it is a tai chi manouver, the circling teacup all choreographed but it is just a fishing bird near the pipeline.

   On the path find a silky red string that is damp and when I am near the two men fishing in the tulpehocken creek in December 26, a Bernieres truck flies over the 422 bypass bridge that arches over the path and the waterway at this point.

Just a Ticket

   Walk this morning no herons lots of moist mist and hint of frostiness finding red tickets left on ground from raffle, they are red, plus a foil candy wrapper squished into a round flat button, red gold and green.