Bestiary # 1
Bestiary # 1 Bestiary Today I took pleasure in distance, seated alone in the willow forest, eating rice with honey and milk, then sleeping with the lights off. I didn't dream about toads lurking behind doors, or dead fish in plastic bags. I didn't hide toys in the closet, or matches, or candles. It's not that I don't love you, Daddy. It's that you created the distance with your regimented humiliation. I approached you as a hummingbird only to feel winter’s frost. A cardinal sang magical melodies, kept me alive. I cured my injuries as I could, and if unable I gnawed, burned, spat, covered with garlic and mud. Yet the best herbarium was time and distance—the most spectacular of all my acts of wizardry. © Sergio A. Ortiz, June 21, 2010