she dug a testy vagrant seedling
out of a curb drain that emptied into the gutter of the main street that cut the
town in half before the interstate did again in the Fifties
she took it because she could and
because no one but her cared
in her backyard she had Skinny a
tall spindly tree whose species she didnt want to identify Ayo a dazzling white
sage Oaklee definitely an oak Iggy the fig MaryJane who if wasnt a marijuana plant did a sensational impersonation of one Slim another tough unknown plant
that piqued her interest and Okchakko-iti a Colorado blue spruce she intended
to replant but her landlords were adamantly against they detested pines she assumed their issue was watering it
which in semiarid California could be a worthwhile argument if they werent the
namesake and relations of an early homestead family who believed the water under
the tens of thousands of acres of Indian lands granted them nearly two hundred
years earlier were inviolable sacrosanct
illhumoured she thought Its nice
to be allowed among the White Gods
not allowing their stand against
Okchakko-iti to chaste her her eye grew attentive to any upstarts and vagrants that
seemingly sprung from nothing
nowhere near was their apparent
parentage
more than likely an undigested
seed shat by a bird and randomly given a shot at life
she couldnt imagine a better reason
for trying to help and give them a leg up
flat-out many detest vagrants
they had no intentions of trying to understand or even hear their stories
the deficits they incurred and suffered through no fault of their own
many are like that
she wasnt one
never was
she didnt care for selfish White
Gods
1700-ish, Thursday,
22 9. 16
1244, Friday,
23 9. 16
You must live in the present,
launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Henry
David Thoreau
