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CORPOREAL AFFAIRS

Out early this morning to harvest the shiitake buttons I noticed emerging from the logs under the cherry tree just before I was set adrift on aforementioned sea; was amazed upon returning to this corporeal area that the mushrooms were still there. The monkeys hadn't come at any of the last few dawns or dusks to nibble them off.

I haven't seen or spoken to or yelled at or thrown rocks at or chased a monkey for many months now; have they all been pensioned? While out there I also repaired two of the three tunnels I'd built for the winter greens, that were turned into thick white pancakes by the big snow that fell, apparently as a unit, while I was adrift.

The morning sun made it easy to lift the snow off in large slabs; I cut some fresh snow-watered greens for lunch before tunneling them again to give the next big snow storm something merely mischievous to do. They're winter vegetables, so if they had to they'd just lie there under the snow and wait for the melt, but they do appreciate all the help they can get. They've sprung up again already.

Then when I came inside, as I was removing my boots I was for some reason moved to turn my head to the left and there in the lower shoe cupboard, toward which one does not normally turn one's head to gaze, were the narcissi I had completely forgotten about forcing some weeks ago, the bottoms of the forcing bowls filled with thick threads of pearly white roots, the emerald green leaf shoots already over an inch high. I took them out and set them next to the front window for maximum perfume when the next big snow storm has its go at the vegetables.