For the hour drive home, I nurtured that plant at the heating vents. It was dead by morning. You need some kind of magic, ten green fingers and ten green toes, to keep plants alive through a Harlem winter. This town is home to about a thousand souls with other things on their minds. The most conspicuous lawn ornaments are FOR SALE signs battered by wind, dust, and ice until they weather in.
Ducks paddle up to the edge of the road.
Rafts of terns settle in flooded fields. I walk the town in search of them. I am immediately a freak. Thou Shalt Not Walk. Thou Shall Eat Cheese Sauce.