San Miguel de Allende
Roof rainbow...San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Retired scorpion hunter...
Since the workers have sealed up the wooden beams with cement, just three scorpions thus far and usually by July I would've murdered at least 10 or so...I figured out the wooden beam entries one night while reading, looked up to see a gigantic scorpion staring down at me...I live in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, a beautiful town, but the builders of this casita left openings in the wooden beams to the outside, so a scorpion highway, fucking yikes...so I leaped up at around midnight, grabbed a plastic stool, onto the mattress (picture that, very wobbly), my long rainbow feather duster, holding on to the wall so as not to fly through the window, and murdered it with one swift shot...it fell directly on to my pillow, ayyyy Diosa...but as I was standing there, after giving it The Double Flush Ceremony, I looked up to the beams and saw moonlight streaming in, ah the openings, the scorpion highways to la casita. Then some nightly fiesta fireworks began, so I ran up to the roof to watch fiery rainbows explode over the town, sheer beauty, sheer joy...someone riding a horse down the cobbles, probably el policia with night patrols...I feel safer here than any city in my own country, yet I also love my country, the USA, where all The People have come to live from all over the Earth...gracias to the Native People, all the wanderers, my Yaqui grandmother who crossed into the USA from Sonora, when asked the contents of a sack by Customs, she emptied it and shouted, 'AIRE MEXICANA....MEXICAN AIR'...that spirit, Kokopelli's laughter, sustains me...as we walk, crawl, limp, dance into the Sixth World...Kokopelli tells me there are no 'illegal human beings,' just the old migration routes...one people, one planet. If you're curious about the Mayan Sixth World, a good book is- 'Mexican Mystique,' Frank Waters...all of his books...QUE VIVA...
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What a lovely glimpse into your world, Alma. Abuela's spirit still lives on. Had to chuckle at the image of you standing on your stool batting down the scorpion with your trusty feather duster. You are brave, and I so admire you. Love this line: Kokopelli tells me there are no 'illegal human beings,' just the old migration routes...one people, one planet. Looking forward to your next entry!
ReplyDelete"Fucking yikes" is right! I have a hard enough time with spiders. Scorpions would send me round the bend... and I'm a Scorpio! (Maybe that's why.) Beautiful description of your little place on earth... I think I need to find a way to spend my birthday (which is the Day of the Dead) south of the border this year, with a camera and a notebook.
ReplyDeleteHa! I'm with Catharine! Scorpio woman that I am, I don't honestly know what the heck I'd do if I ever saw a live one crawling around me. You are brave, for sure!
ReplyDeleteAnd what better to write about, eh? Hell...if I was chasing down real live Scorpions on a regular basis, rest assured I'd go looking for a pen & notebook!
Looking forward to reading more...
The first scorpion I saw, just moved in, I almost RAN OUT THE DOOR... but of course 'the wise voice' (damn her) said, "Be still," and when she speaks, very softly, I always follow orders...took off my sandal and did the deed. The thing I had to get used to was that they didn't try to get away, like The Borg they don't know we exist, a very ancient species, not interested in us. And so Los Escorpiones became a 'central character' in the novel, as I became the 'scorpion hunter.' I love this house, from the immense sky light in the entry (sun, stars, moon, lighting), to the roof where I watch birds migrating at dawn, sunset to their lakes, the fireworks...a sky house...Dia de Los Muertos in San Miguel is wonderful.
ReplyDeleteP.S... A re-minder to keep track of the 'omens' in our environment, our life, as writers...it's all trying to tell us something, even the dreaded scorpions. I resisted at first, of course, but I literally began to DREAM them just in case I was trying to ignore their true presence in my life jajaja... Keep a 'dream journal,' write your dreams down in the morning or whenever you wake up even if it's just a tidbit...as you begin to WANT TO REMEMBER, your dreams will become more fleshed out in your memory...our dreams are a living link to the 'fictive dream,' our writing. When my Yaqui grandmother taught me 'dreaming' as a 4 year old, starting then, she reminded me to tell her my dream directly after waking up, and she'd tell me hers...she taught me to pay ATTENTION to my dreams...keep a 'dream notebook' by your bed w/pen, flashlight.
ReplyDeleteLOL We're on a parallel course, I think, because I've been a cockroach hunter almost all my life, LOL. Scorpions are a little more glamorous, I guess, but much deadlier. I have never been able to plug up any house well enough to keep unwanted visitors out. Must be my magnetic personality. Congratulations on your retirement! I shall check out the Sixth World. Abrazos, Syl
ReplyDeleteLOL I have Scorpio rising in my birth chart!! I wonder where the cockroaches come from?
ReplyDeleteBy 'retired' I mean I'm no longer hunting los escorpiones en mi casita, I look around of course, but not as before while humming 'Mission Impossible'...but I still look as there continues to be a stray...I'm still teaching and writing, till my final breath...a poet/writer not ever 'retires'... good luck with los cucaraches, at least they don't bite/sting...to our magnetic personalities...xo
ReplyDeleteAlma, you are a mythologist to be sure. I think "Writers Dreaming" is a lot of the reason I applied for Pacifica's Myth Studies program (now, sadly, on hold for a year, due to lack of $$). But you should know that you and your dreaming started all that for me. Darn you. :)
ReplyDeleteCatherine...how I love to hear that and I hope you're keeping that 'dreaming journal,' resistance is futile jajaja...that's what the scorpions whispered to me, damn them...xo *Have you read Frank Waters' 'Mexico Mystique,' think you'd enjoy it, all of his books, grew up with Native people...
ReplyDelete