1.
Yesterday, enroute to the opera, we paused on the walkway leading off the ferry to watch 3 seals sunning themselves on rocks. It was a low tide. The ferry was right on time. On the muddy shore, a pair of geese with their goslings dozed at the edge of the water.
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2.
At the opera, we sat on the mezzanine before the performance. I was drinking a glass of wine. Have you noticed how many people wear sneakers now, I asked. The woman in an off-the-shoulder red satin dress, her sneakers bright with sequins. A man in a formal black suit, wearing soft lilac pumas.
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3.
The return ferry was late. As we drove home, the first star appeared over Davis Bay. Then another. Half-way, by Lilies Lake, almost no light left, apart from the stars, a coyote pup bounded up the bank by the road. By the time we drove up to our house, the dark sky was glittering, a half-moon caught in the arms of the Douglas fir right by our stairs.
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4.
Lying awake in the night, I thought of her beautiful aria, “Un Bel Di, Vedromo”, how she sang as though she truly believed he would come.
And as he arrives
What will he say? What will he say?
He will call Butterfly from the distance
I without answering
Stay hidden
A little to tease him,
A little as to not die.
At the first meeting,
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5.
Returning from Carmen exactly one year ago, I wasn’t expecting the message that awaited me. There are arias I too would sing if I knew them.
You? You? You? You? You? You? You?
Little God! Love, my love,
flower of lily and rose.***
6.
The first roses have buds, Mme Alfred Carriere, the wild climbing dog. Yellow day-lilies will bloom next week. Or the week after. It doesn’t matter.
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7.
A tray of strong bean seedlings, Hilda Romanos and Blue Lakes, waits to be planted. Today I made the supports, trying to arrange the poles into something elegant and wild. Last year butterflies paused on the tallest canes.
