Eco Friendly Real Estate Blog

Neighborhood Infusions -One Sunday in Asheville

Neighborhood Infusions

These are my favorite neighborhoods,
the out-of-the way bits
guarded by ancient oaks,
and here and there, distinguished with
a friendly fence someone recently painted-
not white, but with an infusion of color: lavender
to grace the red-to-orange geraniums
in terra-cotta pots
that hang out on the other side.

I like the histories: The foot trail wide
and so well-worn
that runs along a stream
and leads back, in human-time,
to seventeen and ninety-four
to a Cherokee
who walked this way, like me,
but then it was a narrow trading path.

And if I turn my head just-so as I meander,
a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak or a
Scarlet Tanager, or a
Yellow-billed Cuckoo, or a
Ruby-throated Hummingbird, or even a
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
may call out in the same song
my fellow traveler heard so long ago
and, with this particular infusion of "color"
bridge two hundred years and more,
so we can meet.

Now the days are wrapped in bone-cold chill,
the mountain mists press down upon my rooftop.
Should others cover up in blankets or in scarves
hand-woven in grey and purple and plaid,
I will not. I have seen how muses paint
in shades of true.
I will relish the first bite of winter
bare-headed, though bald I am,
immerse myself in an array
of hues and never-ending colorful infusions.
And I shall greet each passer-by
with at nod that says,
"All's Well!"

bald and beautiful