My Favorite Ex-neighbor   She walks — nearly everywhere she goes, she walks, taking her own sweet time, taking in everything. All over Berkeley, she kneads each step like she was barefoot in warm sand, thinking of Ipanema and Naples and Maine. A walk isn’t just to get somewhere, it’s to be somewhere, and know it. She can make a grand tour right here, find a World’s Fair in a simple trip to the grocery store. Keep her close — up in the redwoods she’ll see unregarded treasure, the forest floor strewn with doubloons of dusty light, and she can hear how music is revealed, and more, how the wind in the trees swells to a chord.                                                           for Mimi     © Michael Fleming New York, New York June 2000