An Early Spring Moment
Still dark. Far off, a seagull’s cry,
then a car off to work and another
and another and another just outside
my window. I’m comfortable in bed,
listening, somewhere in my head, to
the comforting, lovely Welsh song,
“All Through the Night” assuring me
that a guardian angel had been there
all night long. Suddenly a morning one
comes as the red light from thermostat
flashes on to tell me a warmth is waiting
beyond my thick comforter.
I read for a while. Here’s a quotation.
“The best sex, probably, was the sex
people had when they really believed
they would go to hell for it–but craved
it so badly that they had it anyway.”
Later, with my coffee, I read a quotation
from Plato’s Republic, the famous one about
a soul waiting for reincarnation. It is told
by the Fates that its destiny is of its own
choosing, “Your daemon or guardian spirit
will not be assigned to you by lot; you will
choose him….Virtue knows no master;
each will possess it to a greater or less
degree, depending on whether he values
or disdains it. The responsibility lies with
the one who makes the choice; the god
has none.” I think of Achilles choosing
fame not happiness and while brooding
over destiny, I look out of my window
across the top of a tree just getting comfortable
with its new green, see a seagull turn
in a great curve above the 7-11, wonder
why I chose the one that got me here now.
by Nils Peterson
3/2024