 mexican carrot on our window sill – foto by smith we’re back in the land of hugging, holding, touching, kissing and smiling. left cleveland ohio 6 yesterday morning, landed in oaxaca 3 planes, 1,946 miles, 10 hours later. our smoothest, quickest long journey yet. it’s as if we’re supposed to be here, and reality welcomed us back with a lack of snafus and a plethora of serendipity – like when we dropped the rental car off at 4:30 in the morning in the dark and found the airport shuttle bus waiting for us. no time in our two week visit to have a big juicy life & planet threatening hamburger, but did have a cup of starbucks just before we left houston – by the time we took off, i was moving faster than the plane. folks worried about drug use should investigate starbucks: we’re talking caffeine with a serious C here. the Big C may be cancer, but the biggest C is but one Venti away. this is the 7th country we’ve returned to – flew into england 4 times, 1 plane 1 train to france, 1 plane 1 bus 1 car to croatia, 1 car 1 bus to italy, 2 trains to spain, 2 planes to the u.s.a. and 2 to mexico. happy to be home. things are easier the second time around. this time we knew the tricks, such as having to slip from international in-terminal to domestic out-terminal in mexico city. it especially helps to have done it before when the game and ever-changing rules are in a foreign language. this is true in love as well. as sinatra sang, love is lovelier the second time around. found a lot of stress, hostility, sadness, angry faces + heat and humidity in cleveland. but cleveland also has some of the nicest most creative folk we know, so it was a fair trade-off. cleveland also has the strongest, edgiest, most vibrant poetry scene in the 10 countries and 17-some cities we’ve lived in these past 2 years. ya wanna see what poetry can be, drop by the 2nd thursday reading in cleveland ohio at The Literary Cafe. Reincarnation How weary do I journey on my way  early 1970s smith collage – foto by smith |