The Arroyo

Two Fish

A cow is screaming across the arroyo. Looking up I pay attention to what’s around me. I notice the multicolored, fat fish in the arroyo which turns into a pond and then into a wishing well under the skylights of some mall.  I photograph them with my phone to prove all this really happened.

The only coin I have in my pocket is a new penny. Perhaps they won’t mind. I toss it into the well so it can sparkle with the others like stars on the ocean floor.

Resuming my walk I wonder, as I likely should be wondering about everything, What was that all about? I decide to write a to-do list for my next walk just in case.

Linked to dVerse Prosery. Linda Lee Lyberg is hosting with the sentence “A cow is screaming across the arroyo”. It comes from Jim Harrison’s poem “Cow” which appeared in Dead Man’s Float.

Fat Fish in Fancy Mall

Author: Frank Hubeny

I enjoy walking, poetry and short prose as well as taking pictures with my phone.

44 thoughts on “The Arroyo”

  4. Frank, this is so great. (Especially after a recent visit to my phone store, where the clerk told me, confidentially, man, I’m trippin’!)

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  14. Poetry Ink Blot
    Test For Soul
    SPeaK Dance Sing..
    We Once Had a ‘Head
    Stander’ Aquarium Fish
    Magnificent Creature of
    Closed In Glass He is then..
    Hurricane Erin Came And Shut
    the Electricity off for A Week…
    Vigorously We Stirred His
    Glass Pond For Breathing
    Water Air
    Eventually
    Before He died
    We decided to Travel
    Down the Road to Set him
    Free off a Bridge into a Body
    of Water Called Pond Creek
    i told my Wife a Lie A ‘White’
    one then that ‘He’
    Would Live a Long
    Life Now With New Friends…
    She Smiled the Lie was Worth that Smile..
    Some days You can either be right or make someone
    Smile i tend to tell the Truth online but i ignore lies
    in ‘Real Life’ not to kill the smiles of other lies other wise
    i FeeL it is
    important
    to document
    the Truth that
    the Fish Died..
    in Light Now
    somewhere
    at least now
    in a book
    that will
    not
    make
    my
    Wife
    Sad…
    ‘thing’ is…
    NoW Love
    STill Lives…
    I’ve seen Death as the GreaTesT
    BLeSSinG iN LiFE so i Always LiVE NoW
    SMiLes Frank Happy Holidays i ALWaYS See Christmas for i LiVE NoW..:)

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    1. I am sorry to hear about the fish. It makes me wonder how prepared I would be if the electricity went out for a week. Probably not very prepared. She may have realized the truth, but all that stirring was the best one could do to affirm life. Thank you, Fred!

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      1. “She May Have Realized The Truth”…
        Smiles my FRiEnD the “Head Stander Fish Parable”
        Hehe about the Hurricane that turned ‘off the Lights’
        And No Longer Made the Aquarium Breathable for our
        Majestic Tiger Striped Looking Cigar Shaped Extra Large Aquarium Fish…
        As We Stirred And Stirred And Stirred the Aquarium More for ‘Air’ until ‘His’ Swimming
        Slowed… my God That Fish Kept on Getting Bigger and Bigger Close to Hard
        to Turn around in the Aquarium over years of Growth.. not what we expected…
        not sure… that
        fish might
        have been
        a bit
        of a
        ‘Super Fish’ too
        at least “Super Normal” hehe..
        As Far as “Head Stander Fish Aquarium
        Fish” go at least.. Anyway it soothed my Wife’s
        Soul of Hope in allowing that fish a Trip Down the Road
        to ‘Pond Creek’ as Her Hopeful View Saw Happily Ever After
        Where the Fish could Finally Be Free and Even perhaps find
        Fish Like Him to Be Friends with too.. But You See what this
        ‘Parable’ of this Fish says is more About Human Nature as
        There is Love as Love Will Be Dark as Well as Light as
        Love doesn’t Always Follow the Truth in Light
        Away from Dark as yes there is Negative
        Empathy among Humans who
        Harm Other Humans And the
        Rest of Nature (God) too
        Seen as Different And
        Separate and
        Outside
        of ‘the
        Tribe’ at Hand
        as this goes for all
        ‘Labeled’ and ‘Perceived’
        Human Differences seen with
        Even Fear.. Disgust.. and Hate for
        what is not commonly Understood
        Better With a Seek and Find too.. true
        though my Wife had something even more
        Powerful than Love in Either Darker of False
        or Lighter of Truth my Wife Had Hope no matter
        What my Stellar IQ Provided me in a Reason of No
        there is no way in Hell the Head Stander Fish would
        Survive he is good as dead when we tossed him over the
        Side of the Bridge into his descent into Pond Creek Waters…
        i asked my Wife today still.. do you Think that Fish Lived.. and
        She Still Proclaims Yes!
        “i Hope he did!”
        For She Still gives
        him that Opportunity
        For Life today Despite all
        Odds to the Contrary that my
        Stellar IQ in Rationality Rigid Brings to me..
        But you See it is this Virtue of Hope that runs through
        my Wife Katrina through and through that saved my LiFE
        my Soul my HeART my SPiRiT True for it is also True my Sister
        And My Mother were not so Rational Minded as i tend to be if i let
        my Neo-Cortex take over the Whole Human Show.. as true that will
        be my Asperger’s Version of Intelligence if i do not Firmly Say No
        And Allow the ‘Right Metaphor of Brain’ in Social Empathic
        Artistic SpirituaLiTy A Rise Again to the Surface of my
        Lust and Love For Life as a Work of Art more
        than Science.. for when i got SuPeR
        iLL.. approved on my First Try
        for Social Security Disability
        And Federal Civil Service Disability
        After 25 years of Active Paid Work
        where the last One-and-a-half Years
        was spent in Annual and Sick Leave Status
        With 19 mostly Stress related Illnesses after
        11 Years of Chronic Work Related Stress and
        the Last 2 years of that in Flight or Fight Acute
        Stress Day in and Day out my Attending Physicians
        offered Zero Chance Prognosis for Recovery they literally
        told me to my Face i had no chance for Recovery and my Rheumatologist
        told me he didn’t want to see me anymore in his office as there was nothing he
        could do to help me either.. but true my Mother And Sister And Katrina did not give
        up this Virtue of Hope that was totally Lost in my Vocabulary of Feeling And Sensing Soul
        as i no longer even had a Memory of the Emotions that go with a Smile or even if i had ever
        Felt the feeling of a Laugh in Life at all.. truly worse than the Worst Pain known to Humankind
        Type Two Trigeminal Neuralgia that was from Wake to Sleep as Shut-in For 66 Months as honestly
        No Doctor had
        any possible
        Remedy that
        they knew of to
        Bring a Human Soul
        of Emotions Feelings back
        from the Living Dead.. no clue
        just no frigging clue how to help
        me any of them had… all that was left
        was not my Hope but that of the Woman
        Who Believes in the “Head Stander Fish” who
        Still Hopes He Made it to thrive again and make
        Friends for the first time like him.. Hope my Friend
        Without Hope We are so little of What Human Souls
        Will Come to be as Living Dead and Living again my FRiEnD
        i found out Just how ‘Stupid’ my Standard IQ was in all those
        Years of living Hell on Earth.. after my Release from Hell i am
        bound and determined still Now to tell the Story of How the ‘Head
        Stander’ Fish was Resurrected from the Living Dead and Still Lives now
        by God not just lives.. writes a 7.5 MiLLioN Word ‘SonG oF mY SoUL’ Longest
        Long Form Poem Bible in 75 Months.. after not being able to Speak until age
        4 as Autistically Born then.. additionally Just finishing a Celebration of a “Nether Land
        Bible” Sub-Titled And Sub-Chaptered Long Form Poem Bible of that Effort Risen now
        to 5 MiLLion Words in 42 Months of everlasting Hope and the Most of Truth in Light i will
        Bring to a ‘Table of Plenty Now’ as the Public Dance now at 12,404 Miles is only 45.5 Miles.. NoW in 75
        Months too.. Away from Halfway the Distance Around the Globe at the Equator as in this MacroVerse of that
        Continuing Effort on Average of Dance 166 Miles Per Month Overall Continuing Now.. Yes in the Blog Post
        i am Writing Now i am Celebrating This Milestone/Featnote as i Sing and Dance Now the Story
        of the “Head Stander”
        Fish Resurrected
        From the Living
        Dead not only
        to Swim but
        to Float
        And
        Fly
        on Terrestrial
        Land Public Dance
        And Most of all a Story
        That Says God is no Myth
        God is No Fable God is the
        Difference Between Life and Death
        For God is Hope God is Truth in Light And Dark
        That And Who Exists ALL Survives LiVeS AnD LoVeS NoW
        Thanks For the Seed of Inspiration my
        FRiEnD and The Garden of Space that
        You So Freely Allow my Light
        to continue to Escape
        as only
        Belief
        And Hope
        That is Faith of Love Will..
        With Sure A Bit of ReaSoN
        SPRiNKLeD in too but not
        Enough to Rot the Love to Death As Light RiseS AGAiN
        Out of Ashes of Rigid ReaSoNinG too My FRiEnD God
        Bless You ALWAYS WitH AnD As LoVE NoW aS NoWS
        CoMe To Be i AM for You too..
        Smiles i Will Dance Sing Merry
        Christmas in FAct of
        Art i ALWaYS
        Do it Now For Real
        As ‘Head Stander Fish’
        Out of ‘Pond Creek’ Who
        Resurrect From the Living Dead
        Just Do WiTH SMiLes oF LoVE Free NoW ALiVE..:)

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  17. Malls and such are often built on the outskirts of town, where old farms and terrain were home to so many animals… the cow’s scream kind of sets a surreal stage here.

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