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I am using less, respecting the sun, protecting myself

from loneliness, cooking a pot of lentil soup

when the days are too long and the nights are crazy hot.

And I am always in love with the lovely lizard

on the porch. It is light and delicate and hardy and smart.

I am reminded by it to remember my dreams,

dreams that tell me to prepare for what comes next,

an earthquake in the middle of the night and the like,

and knowing what comes next, helps me to protect the earth,

using less water, waiting for the oranges to be at their ripest

because there is always an exact moment when they are their best,

and when I think I am the same, I write a poem about it,

what shines, what rises everywhere, and I plant nasturtium and

parsley seeds and check on the winter sunflowers,

the sunflowers easily become the center of my little garden,

a world of its own where I sit with the plants, a true place,

a world of its own ready for the lavender to explode

into purple flowers, atoms in space, opening up the way ahead.