How well do you know the place you live?
It is an act of bonding and of gratitude
.. that leads me to nibble my way across the landscape.
A flower here, a leaf, a bulb or two...
.. here's a grasshopper, a juniper berry for flavor.
Then there is the bounty of fruiting seasons
.. a long period suitable for glut and storage.
There's something essential, something that binds me
.. when I eat of the place I am... perhaps I belong.
Perhaps there is an integration... when I eat of pine tree,
.. or cattails, chew spruce gum, sample white-bark seed.
If... it was merely physical sustenance,
.. I would be more economical, more efficient.
My dog has a similar relationship with place...
.. though he lives in a broader world full of smells.
His reading of place has deeper intricacies
.. often requiring careful reading and peeing on it.
Maybe, if my olfactory senses were more developed
.. I, too, would be obligated to "pee on more of it."
r.anderson 30Jan2011
