. i lay my weapon down .

. i lay my weapon down .



"Why didn't you just take it slow girl?" The woodchuck snorts at the cloud of smoke I release while lookin' sideways at his shiny blackish brown eyed gaze. His whiskers twitch and he gives a short closed-eye sneeze. "Dunno Chuck, I never seem to pause, to get a hold." Shoulders rise and fall gracelessly. It's another grey day, this weather is something Chuck and I like in common and we'd argued about who owned the yard and what parts of the day. We'd settled.

"No sage words for you then girl." Chuck brings a long hooked black claw to his left ear and gives a digging scratch at it. "Damn fleas, damn em all." I look across the yard at the scarlet and yellow Cardinals swooping to catch insects; peck peck peck, and then back into the low branches of an untrimmed locust tree. I nod my head at the wisdom of the woodchuck.

"Ya give all ya can Chuck ... that's all to be done. Never learned ta' hesitate." Chuck stares at me and for a minute I could swear he was smilin'. He turns and waddles back toward the porch; this set of hours belong to me.


© Amanda 2014
Image: "Starting again" by © 2014



... undedicated ... but you know who you are ...