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Showing posts from 2018

A Shimmering

Green and shimmering and fluttering through the air. I follow. It hovers by a leaf, settles, and stills. A lacewing. The lacewing disappears. I see only leaf and nearby leafs and branch and bush. Feathery grasses tickle from below. Among them, a sensitive plant, which I tickle but does not close.     It is not a sensitive plant. Nearby, a scrawny vine of poison ivy, which I do not tickle. Something tickles me. A tiny spider threads a line across my hand. I blow it off into yellow flowers. The flowers nod. The bushes sway in a light breeze. Leafs sway. A fluttering appears in the air, green and shimmering. The lacewing flies away. (Written on October 20, 2018 at Zilker Nature Preserve)

A Skitter of Motion

A skitter of motion across the sandstone, and then stillness.  Two lizards clung to the face of the rock, mouths open, panting.  Heat rose from the rock in waves.  One lizard turned an eye back towards the other, readying its legs to run. From downslope, a crashing of rocks.  Hands gripped a ledge, and soon a child pulled himself into view. The boy slapped his dusty hands together.   He stood, and his head of blond hair approached the lizards.  The lizards scrambled up the sandstone wall. The boy looked up, and the lizards froze.  He stared at a lizard, squinting. The lizard slowed its breathing and hugged the rock.  The boy remained still, watching.  Eventually the boy looked down.  He knelt and probed his hands among rocks at his feet. When the boy stood again, he again eyed the lizard.  Suddenly his arm blurred with motion. Crack!   A rock exploded beside the lizard, and the lizard ran. The lizard halted, its chest heaving.  It looked back.  The boy's eyes were lit