I don’t have a camera, only my human eyes and my human words to convince you today, December first, was a beautiful day:

White tulips tall in green frosted glass…

Streets lined by trees arching red and yellow against cold blue air…

Faces, faces, and ears, human ears, some compact, some hung with blue crescent ornaments…

Leaves-tiny yellow fans-sprinkled around our tapping feet…

Leaves of red—not in heaps of varying degrees of decay—but freshly strewn along our path for our pleasure…

Hundreds of sailboats afloat in the bay, stretched far to horizon…

A shining Lady of Guadalupe, her blue cloak spattered with gold stars, borne down Mission Street in the noonday sun, hundreds of people pressed behind her in procession…

Seven hawks so high in the sky, they might all fit on my thumbnail, weaving cloth from many threads…

December day comes to a close, unseen sun rims clouds with gold fire…