MY PLACE

Broken and fractured bones
Lurid bruising and internal bleeding
Have me lying in a hospital bed.
Fate chipping away
At an erstwhile indomitable ego.

For that I am grateful. 
My life stripped back to basics.
Emotional support from friends
And family, pain management
Laxatives morning and night. 

Opportunities that I wished for
Reading a book on Owls
And a biography of Ramakrishna:
Matters of Ojai - A land of Live Oak roosts
Possessed of a heavenly mantle. 

I am in my place, if not my home. 
Dawn’s early light, evenings soft glow
On the Santa Ynez range
To the North.
Courtyards of sun and citrus.