A Sign

So this morning I went out at 6 am to the Sacred Fire area to sit with Al Robles. I had clipped his picture with a clothes pin to a bush under the cherry tree, the picture where he’s emphasizing something punching the air with his finger. It had become a prayer flag for me. I couldn’t bear to take it down from where I put it to pray for his healing.

I left it fluttering or soggily bent in half, letting the Oregon rain wash over it. “When it wears away, his love will spread,” I thought.

I’ve been on email, or writing poems, or on websites and Facebook reading about Al. I’ve been reading Bulosan, watching "Manilatown is in the Heart," basically inside the house feeling sorry for myself.

This morning at 4 am, I tuned in on the YouTube memorial clip, taking a moment of silence by myself listening to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” with ukulele in Iz style. And I thought to myself, “I wonder if I go out to the Fire, if Al will visit. I wonder if he’ll leave a sign.”

You guessed it.

The Al Robles Prayer Flag is gone, not in tatters, not torn.
He was never one to just wear down.
This morning before the sun broke over the trees:

The wind picked it up and it flew away;
The blue jay snatched it in its beak and it’s now a nice nest in the fir tree;
The deer came by and it stuck to them as they grazed on berries
And with them, disappeared into the dawn;
The trickster raccoon took it in its nimble hands
And with a few deft moves made it disappear into thin air;
The bees are chewing and chewing and making it into honey;
The rain got so bad last night a giant tsunami wave was created and it’s now the Ocean

Whatever form he chose,
This morning,
Love is all around the world!