Wednesday, May 22, 2013

On a morning walk, without a camera

Picture what looks to be an enormous honeysuckle plant, the bloom as big as the palm of your hand, the pistil as long as your middle finger. Imagine the fragrance as you walk past it and look up to see what that smell is, look up and see it hanging over a wall. You pull one off the vine, apologetically looking up toward the window of the house behind the wall, in case someone is watching, but no one is, so you pull out the pistil (or is it the stamen?), slowly, anticipating the tiny drop of nectar that will appear at the end of the tube. It's dry. Hear, too, the sound of too many crows squawking as they dart and fly and hop over green lawns, the hiss of sprinklers on and off. Picture their black disfavored bodies, wings outspread, the one loud one just overhead. Jump at the crack beside you in the middle of the street, bits of a nut shell, scattered, the sound a tinny gun shot and the crow swoops down to peck at what is freed. Imagine your own head exploding like that, bits of bone, whatever is extraneous, littering the street and only the good stuff left to pick over.

6 comments:

  1. And thus- the reason for blogs. This.

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  2. Oh my...How is Ms. Mermaid today?

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  3. "Picture their black disfavored bodies, wings outspread, "

    see? poetry. perfection.

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  4. I love your writing, Elizabeth, and your dear dear heart.

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  5. Love this. "Disfavored bodies" -- that's great.

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  6. I was going to note 'disfavored' too, but I see it's already been done. I am glad that this day, you didn't have the camera. I think words can render more fully than any photograph.

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