Today from the top of Swallow Drive in El Cajon I took photographs of the mountain we climbed yesterday. Gillespie Field Airport is in the foreground with Santee to the left and El Cajon to the right. Lakeside is on the other side of the first ridge. El Capitan rises above a long narrow valley beyond Lakeside.Yesterday we ate lunch in the saddle where the trail splits between the peak to the left and El Capitan on the right.
A MIRROR

Today a mirror I used refused to show a lie.
All the signs of age and end of youth were there;
and no amount of straining brings reflected back
intensity and fire of life that still
burn wildly in my mind and spirit.

But then I turn to sky and sea and meadow
and feel reflected back that self I live with
that cannot be picked up by silvered glass.

The condition I live with is irreversible.
All people around me, even my friend,
can see only what the mirror sees
and finally will not, cannot touch what
the sky and sea and meadow know of me.
Seven days ago I began the photographic of the amaryllis blooming. Seven days ago the two sturdy pale-green stalks offered only tight buds. Today six trumpet blossoms are open leaving only two unopened buds.