Sunday, May 8, 2016

ITS GETTING GREEN (WHAT THE MAN SAID) - for Tara



I was travelling through the fields and briefly spoke to a man. The day eventually turned out to be with rain and coldish winds. At that time, in the morning, it was looking different. Warm was the air and bright the risen sun. The man was saying that a year and a half ago the area was new. The area was not new, but I understood what he meant. He was saying that nobody went there yet, and access to those fields, though not prohibited, was not taken advantage of. And now, we agreed, there was hardly a place to park on a Sunday morning. Luckily there were a few long stretches without folks. During these, the dogs could really run and an owner, a master or caretaker, did not have to worry about ‘city-ish’ people who warmed unknowingly too much to leads, to leashes and rules…

There are some impossibly tall birches on one side that reach up and over the side of a field. Its like they are trying to touch the cumulus clouds. Way down from there is actually a gun range, and though some people worry, it is quite far off. The reports come sounding so loudly because of the acoustics of the summits and their contours, and because of where the place is situated. I once saw a guy who had his Huskie dog all dressed in bells and other ornaments. His poor dog looked like a clown. His logic I could see was that if someone around there took his cur for a wolf or coyote, well,…he simply wouldn’t with all those silly bells and jewellery. 

I talked with the man some more. Somebody’s dog got hit by a porcupine he said. That costs lots of money if it’s plenty of quills and you cant get them out on your own. Well,- soon he went his way and I went mine,- and that was a kind of ‘saying’ in itself insomuch that we were talking about the greatness of solitude and freedom (if even for a short while). I walked ‘round the far perimeter, and then saw black birds flying over the tree line. Eventually we doubled back to the original way we had taken…a long and open path that slowly winds…

Yes, the way has much open space and the little hills rise somewhat. I remembered whilst
looking at the green that is spreading itself out almost everywhere,- by the tree trunks and across the land,- one other thing the man had said. He simply said that ‘Its getting very green.’ Simple but profound. How long we had all, strangers, acquaintances, friends and even enemies,- waited for the chance, through the icy and dark months,- to be able to utter something along those lines…


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