Turn back time

Day 4: poem and a picture

Joshua was in the thick of battle, not tired, just wondering if he could get some help. Maybe he said to the Lord, “There’s just not enough daylight hours to get done what you need to do.” So the Lord said, and I’m paraphrasing, “Okay.” The sun stood still. If I were in the heat of the sun in the heat of the battle I wouldn’t ask for more time then. I would ask for it near the end of a lovely long weekend.

But I am not Joshua.

Yesterday, many notable events: I watched two dogs play together till they fell in the summer grass still wrestling but too tired to get up. A fried egg in butter turned out perfectly with red potatoes. All in one day I found a bank teller and a barista only too happy to help me. Someone asked forgiveness. Songbirds in Tennessee rejoiced behind a newscaster saying something about a flood. The former president asked his rally followers to get the vaccine. Cuomo resigned halfheartedly, saying truth will always come out. Lavender shot up like purple fireworks.

Last night about half past eight I suddenly thought I hadn’t photographed anything all day and what would become of this exercise of daily poem and picture?

Out my kitchen window all was dark but the last of the blue-hazy-orange gloaming sky at the thin western edge of the continent… all the rest in a worldly gloom till morning. I snapped a pic where I could hardly see the back deck, wicker chair, potted plants, crossed the room and hoped for the best.

In photo edits—brilliance, contrast— the sun came back: color returned to the things of earth. Turns out —who knew?—you can turn back time anytime you like.