SKY AND SHADOW BIRDS AND OTHER





Distant was the darkening sky. I thought of Paul Bowles and the book I never read but what a title, The Sheltering Sky. If I can find it I might read it one day. In any event, though I don’t know what The Sheltering Sky is even about,- and only that Bowles lived in Algeria and was vaguely associated with Kerouac and those guys,- the blue sky, darkened as I said, was slowly approaching. And I knew that it was a storm. It was way beyond the fields, past the feed corn stalks that live along the purlieu, and miles and miles out further than the old farmer’s house and barn and tractors. But…it was coming. I think I wanted to feel its rain drops a bit, in order to cool off. I began to leave, but went slowly. There was no thunder or lightning. What was there? A Monarch butterfly, imperial, majestic, solitary, swaying up and down by the Queen’s Lace flowers, - flowers in the hundreds, maybe thousands. I watched the butterfly and slowly approached but it sensed me and went off to the larger fields where it lived. A chipmunk, running up a tree. A squirrel, already in a tree. Branches, berries, and some of the berries were black, others red, and still others a mixture of both. Most of the berries haven’t even ripened yet. Some drops of water. Poison Ivy and Poison Oak I am sure. A small stream,- moss covered rocks, a large tree that has fallen over because of a storm or something- and a bumble bee, incredibly huge, skirting its away around it,- going back into an opening. There are the residue and barrenness of what was the early blooms, meaning the now gone clover,- my favorite,- and when I see the clover I don’t know how they are not the top wild flower or whatever they really are,- in the world,- the world ‘round. There have been many other things, - and surely there is much that is hidden. The mosquitoes are crazy-abundant, - wild and frenzied and hungry and aggressive. I have to wear a hat mostly, and spray, - though I have natural spray. Walking. Walking slowly. There are several paths back- all in all about seven ways to choose from. There is the highest, and then there are gradients or grades or levels right down to the lowest. Sometimes I venture off even those paths. Today I did. I looked at some tree trunks, some mushrooms, and saw a strange spider, some other berries, - and I forget what else. Nobody was around. On the other side, - more people gravitate. The valley I saw too. It remains incredibly quiet. Evolution or the natural order of decay and then growth is allowed to take hold there, to simply evolve dissolve and evolve there in good standing and order,- untouched and unbothered by the ‘hand of man,’ by the ‘heaviness’ or our intentions. Some birds go by, - a group, close, - and I see their shadows on the dirt floor of a path. Somehow the shadows are more mysterious than the birds themselves. The sky was still behind me and it was coming. I kept ahead of it and would be out soon. What’s this? Another grouping of birds…the shadows, - the mystery. 

-----------------------------

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FIELDS FLOWERS AND SKIES

Image
There were several vehicles at the beginning of the different pathways, but Hayden began to think that these were really just people using the place for car-pooling. Convenient. Mid way between the country and the city. And nobody could ever ‘call’ one on it when it came to by-law or owners and so on- as nobody would be able to tell a dog walker or joggers car from someone who just parked and left. The fields, being fields, are open.  Hundreds of little insects, - red and grey and all other assortments, work in the air and around flowers. The main beginning curves into a long sort of causeway and it’s like the beginning part of a jog or run. To the right, far away, can be heard the reports of a shooting range, and these sound like thunder. There is a wild cat that calls out, and a bird also,- plus the sight of a farmers crops that wait patiently in summer under the sun and heat, and sleep deeply I suppose in the winter under ice and snow and what feels moreso ...
Read more

OTHER PARAPETS

Image
That is not a long stretch of way. Yet, it’s interesting. The new world tries to make everything uniform, safe, practical, and loses the poetry and whimsy, the character of the old. But there, for some reason, in that small town north of other small towns, something remains. People were walking around, some with umbrellas in the sun. Others were fast at work under cars on lifts, the opening bay doors letting in the bright light of the afternoon. I remember Dade County on a day like that in the middle nineteen eighties when one of those repair shops had a man out front adorned in blue coveralls and he was singing along with h the loud radio the song Hey Jude. The tall wildflowers and bushes grow uncut and unnoticed in vacant lots. It seems every other property is a vacant lot. A racoon goes past on a metal roof, just there in the shadows, not for too long, towards some place he knows. The temperature rises. There is a Laundromat with friendly folks, a dog outside, a little parking lo...
Read more

WATER WALK AND BUTTERFLY

Image
The water was cool and the sun fell towards it and upon it as little spiders crawled across the top. Underneath a few fish, small, silver-looking or seaming, and they darted here and there. A frog was near the edge and he jumped in and the dirt underneath stirred. There were not many people around and at that time, nobody was around that specific pond. I remembered it there when it was winter, - frozen, the wind coming across the icy top, almost vexatious, and yet there was a thrill and alertness and a certain winter beauty though rugged and fierce. That old pond must have seen everything there is, - all manner of storm and person and animal, but also things like stillness and quietude and calm. I wonder and think then, - if there be fairy folk, devas, et al. - they are there and the forest knows these creatures well. I walked on, but not far, - just around a small loop as it was incredibly hot and without the water source to cool off the dogs, - would not have ventured there or any...
Read more