Another moment in the park

[jack_babalon]

Looking down I can pretend that I'm a giant. Crossing some alien terrain devasted by an ancient war. Meteor weather has shattered lakes into surface. Tiny black creatures swim back and forth, an amphious race forced to repeat the slow evolutionary crawl out. There is shouting in the mist where the fields laid yesterday. I can only make out a series of disembodied shirts playing Soccer. Yesterdays players have left their ghosts behind. There is a man standing in the bathroom doorway behind the hotdog booth. His hands in his pockets, waiting. He nods his dark eyes at me. A gesture of recognition. It occurs to me then, soaking in the hazy atmosphere, that this was not happening. I was reenacting a memory that has'nt happened yet. I made my way down the drop of hill that was Valley Bluff Road. Branches protested the traffic by laying in the street. I take the turn, wary of ambushing commuters rocketing through the residental zone to get home seconds quicker. I'm looking up. There is a murmur of thunder behind me. The trees sway in a single brush stroke across their leaves. The sun is shining. The mist catches the rays. They hang in the air suspended. A soft orange light veils the rows of gardens and homes along my left. A mourning dove coos. I panic. I catch something move along the perimeter of the eye. I step back in recoil and let out a yelp. I was two steps away from stepping on a little turtle. It looks up at me with its tiny dinosaur face. Actually LOOKS AT ME. I shudder, just now, thinking about it. It shrugs a takes a step forward. The shell is the color mud & seaweed. As a city boy i'm simoultaneously freaked out and awed by it. Is this some weird message from the Faculty X? While I was staring in open adoration of the sun in the air, I almost trampled on this little fella with my big gorilla size 10.5's. I kneel down to touch the turtle, but i'm still to freaked to make contact. I bow my head respectively. A lesson not of beware but be aware. I take the climb home with my eyes open, not wide but focused.

Comments

[catwalk.livejournal.com]

my parents live on a lake, and they have
turtles the size of dinner plates swimming around.
i'm not afraid of them, but they're damn creepy at that size.