<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> This Little Orchid</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s2" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">This</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"> little orchi</span><span class="s2" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">d</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">with</span><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"> its five dark oval leaves hasn’t bloomed </span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">in</span><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"> years, but once </span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">a</span><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"> week I soak the whole pot the way Cindy told me </span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">she</span><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"> does her orchids, and so it lives. </span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This morning, in a kind of dreamy trance, I lift it </span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">out</span><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"> above the sink, then pour the water over it </span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">in</span><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"> a wavering ribbon I can see right through. </span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">How does </span><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">thought come</span><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">? Out of its absence </span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I’m suddenly in mind of Aleppo. This water</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">would</span><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"> be a miracle there, the last wells bombed, </span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">the</span><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"> aid convoys blown up before they unload. </span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Here’s this little orchid with its tender green roots </span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">like</span><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"> worms humped up and reaching for air </span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">above</span><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"> the bark, glistening wet, my hands</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">curved</span><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"> around the pot the way they might </span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">around</span><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"> the seed of a baby unborn. I’d tell it to go back, </span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">tell</span><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"> it the world is not a safe place, not there – </span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">bloody</span><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"> in the rubble, thirsty and covered with dust. </span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Later, unpinning a sheet from the line, I press my face </span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">to</span><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"> the smell of sun and autumn oak trees, the sheet</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">huge</span><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"> for my queen bed, white as a clean </span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">bandage</span><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">, and here they are again, the children,</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">their</span><span class="s3" style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"> lives with me like ghosts or rue.</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); line-height: 21.600000381469727px; padding-left: 36px;">- </span><span class="s4" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">Elizabeth Carothers Herron</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p></div><div><br><br>All the suffering in the world comes from seeking pleasure for oneself. All the happiness in the world comes from seeking happiness for others.<div> - Shantideva </div></div></body></html>