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Fourth Of July ©By Russ





Working on the septic system, and on the Fourth of July. Fireworks exploding in my arms, back, and legs. Making steady progress, feeling once again like a man. Em’s woodpecker is angry that I’m so close to his house. He screeches at me from his hiding place, behind the log. Robin barking under the plum tree, calling to it’s young. sounding like a small dog yapping at a plum. Peacock’s on the porch railing, eating from the cat's dish. Tipper is below, patiently waiting for something to fall. It never cease to amaze me how some things seem to work. I needed rubble to fill in the trench I had dug to save the life of this faltering tank, but had no money for gravel, & no truck. A lady down the lane (who’s a poor as me) had a pile of rubble, in her front yard in about amount that I needed. She was sick of looking at it just sitting there for all the world to see, but couldn’t afford to have it hauled away. A pretty simple deal, until you pause to wonder how it came about. Loaded buckets of rock into the back of the car, until the miracle is complete. Turkey Vulture cruises low, lazily, passing over the house. It’s a first year bird, with fuzz still on it’s head. Not yet looking like the red faced creature who feeds upon the dead. A Violet-Green Swallow, plays a solitary game, climbing up into the sky, to drop small, white feather, picked up from the road. Circling like a tiny green and white jet, he watches it float towards the the ground. And just before it lands, comes swooping down to catch it once again. Maybe everything really is in perfect order, and all I ever needed, was to move a little slower, and take a closer look around me.

Russ---7/6/98







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