Photo by michael podger on Unsplash

Peyote and Poisonous Spiders

Unavoidable Life Lessons

I arrived in Portland, Oregon, in early September. While it was humid where I’d come from, nothing compared me for the wetness of Portland, even in its “dry” moments. Greenery popped out of sidewalk cracks, and in Portland, it wasn’t some sort of symbolic determination of life despite odds like it was back in New York.

Here, green stuff poured from every surface, as if the city had carved itself out a spot in the plant life, as if the two had reached an agreement to cohabitate.

Spiders were everywhere. Overnight, plump and speckled garden spiders would weave webs across the walk from house to curb; more experienced Portlanders kept brooms on their porches for this reason. As a New Yorker who’d seen more cockroaches than spiders, I screamed, jerked and hollered my way to the sidewalk every morning.

So, yes, the hole on my arm… I hadn’t been in Portland very long before a weird little spot appeared on my right arm. It looked like an angry pimple and then soon, a pus-and-rage-filled zit and then, eventually one day, I removed the band-aid to find a small but seething pit by my right elbow.

I started having weird nervous twinges, strange pains traveling up and down the right side of my body. I attributed all of this to the dampness of my new world — maybe I…