Smells like warm earth, sun setting the backdrop to words I’m learning to appreciate. Hobble up that familiar hill, the deer are startled. They regroup somewhere downwind. It’s not so cold behind the tree. Subtle, persistent breeze keeps you honest. I came here to try something new.
What are we meant to try? Sometimes I think the things around us are trying so hard on our behalf we may profit from being slow for a while. Take your time, it’s yours to take, you know?
So many of my yesterdays took their time. Slow heat, sunscreen, that old warm earth. Muddy river crawling lazy through the quiet parts of home. Sometimes, taking time needs an example.
He kept a couple gardens. Squash and lettuce in the front yard by the gravel road. All the flowers he could fit in the small plot by the compost pile. There was always a shovel strangely close at hand. There was reverence in the way he talked about the gardens. It was an honor to help them grow.
Painted wooden ducks, a penguin, a dancer made from the more convenient pieces of wood that littered the riverbank. They lined the raspberry rows. Silent sentinels, supremely humble and never once in need of answers. He rehomed the strangest, most neglected smalltown yardsale offerings. An anvil spraypainted gold. A plaster horsehead spraypainted red. He outfitted a cardboard cutout of George Bush with an alien mask.
It smells like warm wood shavings and old canvas. A shortwave radio rasps out a power ballad by a refrigerator with an incomplete alphabet of magnets that spell out the names of good people. Drinking coffee and eating potato chips, he paints a smiling pig.
Small fire, chair swing. Tree stumps circling the burn pit we all helped dig. Out here, the tree frogs drown out the crickets. Every once in a while, a bullfrog makes himself known, plaintive and majestic. The biggest oak tree I’ve ever seen has a face carved into it. It watches me burn newspaper ads for furniture stores. Fireflies laze through tall grass. The stars are soft above us and I am floored by all the things I got to know.
Lyrical Transportation. Keep em coming 🙏🏼