When you spend too many years incountry

you pay considerable attention to the smallest details surrounding you

and those things  slyly  flag themselves as unusual for where you find them

the dangerous things were gone now

but his keen attention hadnt waned

frankly 

            it remained his best friend 

  

other friends hadnt stuck around

they werent as keen

at the end of a row of bushes  specifically  a hedge

there was a burst  a sudden metallic shimmer

then gone

a Materialist  he knew something betrayed itself

and some things would always be curious to him

walking on  he took an angle out away from the shard of light

not demonstrably

not that he didnt look as if he were simply meandering   or distracted

it was critical to surprise the Surprise

at the rows end he turned sharply to face it
tense
naturally assuming a crouched position
his antennae extended
sweeping the arc which consumed him directly and peripherally

nothing ticked his bodily Geiger–Müller counter

nothing threatened him

a soft warm breeze came up a gangway between two Craftsman houses an tangled 
an wiggling among the roots of the hedge were a crumpled pack of Camels an

tin from three sticks of chewing gum

trash

he laughed

if trash could set him off he was still in a good place  wary  alert  turning recourses

his family and friends were concerned for his immediate brusqueness

cautioning him to relax
they didnt understand he relaxed effulgently when he could and while he was alone

it was not the  loneliness they sought to assign him as much it were the roles they wanted him to play

which he wouldnt

so a tic remained
inside him

not a clocks tick  

but a tic  which he knew eventually would either be rescinded

or shriek an roar as the marbled red flame stoking his boiler

they had taught him preparedness when he was a boy

why would they try and back him off it now

Time

   

           only Time would tell
                                                                                            

and he was listening

2019,  Twosday,  28  10. 14