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Cuyahoga St. Turtle
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A Fellow Creature She passed a driven-
on leatherback turtle
with a foot wide shell
Besides the truck wheel
a huge fishhook inside
his mouth trailing a long
fishline
had shown him what was hell
how soft his legskin
to the touch.. how
flexible his shell...
He bit her in his agony
.. but was toothless...
a knife to cut the line
from hook
and several sprinklings
of sacred ash
.. Like a discus-holding
runner
she passed a rosebush's
fallen arc and took him
to the waterside..
he will be happy to go
back to God from this
rude world
Later that day parakeetsitting for a friend
she was bitten by him as well..
The following day.. moving too
quickly to welcome a stray dog
she was again bitten.
Baba was perhaps telling her
she had violated the mind witness
meditation of the turtle, the unconditional
love and loyalty of the dog, the joy & possessionlessness
of the bird
Later still she was squirted in the eye
by a squeezed lime
but before he left for the river, the turtle
gave her a parting glance of blessing, the
dog later put his paw on her knee, and
the bird after beakfringing her papers,
sat on her head. And the lime
.. having gotten it out of his system,
filled her water glass with
radiant Vitamin C. Swami whispering
.. she had mistakes but, slow learner
that she was, was making progress.
