I love sitting on a darkened porch in the small hours of the
morning when the darkness cloaks me.
When I first purchased my house, it sat 300 feet from three houses, and
two of them were vacant. Today, my quiet country road has been transformed into
another roaring conduit to the city, and the wage slaves start their hour
commute to the city around six a.m. Then
all the new developments near me get their parade of rumbling concrete mixers, and
loads of bricks, lumber and sod.
And of course, the slaves begin returning at five in the
afternoon. My neighbor to the north has
two sons living at home, and both have those annoying sub-woofers on their
cars, and have pretty much ruined my afternoons on the porch as they putter
around on their vehicles and play cool woooompa womp womp woooopa’s for all us
geezers in the neighborhood to enjoy.
Yeah. Cool.
But midnight is my time.
Around mid-March here, it gets warm enough to just sit out and take in
the loom of the distant city, the singing of the neeker-breekers, and the occasional
owl. To my west is a small cattle
operation, and spring nights will have a mama cow bawling to her calf, helping
it find its way to a nice evenings supper of warm milk.
Once in awhile, a deer will quietly walk into the yard, but
if they head toward the succulent tips of my crape myrtles, a short “ha!” sends
them leaping over the fence and into the pasture. Feral cats prowl by the porch
in the middle of the night, and are shocked to find me sitting there. With a spit
and hiss and they are gone into the darkness.
And all of the wage slaves are tucked into their beds,
dreaming of even more obnoxious toys to play with. Gone will be the ubiquitous
ear buds, replaced with visions of Clark Kent glasses with streaming video and camera’s
to secretly record … what?
And the time flits by.
Time to write. Time to ache. Time to sit on the darkened porch and sip
beverages. Time to watch a meteor streak across the sky. Time to feel a weather
front pass by. Time to let the mind wander.
~r
We had our first really warm stretch this Friday and Saturday. Sitting out on the deck with the fire that was almost too warm, finishing off our meal and watching Willow chase frogs about made me really want Summer to be here. I know it's not and tonight, there is no breeze feeling, no star watching, no night air dreaming. It will come in time and I suppose the tenure of my writing will change with it.
ReplyDeleteIt is about 66° now, a bit on the cool side for just sitting. I want to get a chiminea to set out on the deck for spring and fall. But I bundled up in heavy socks and hoodies and enjoyed it for a bit.
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