The light here is none of our business. Marjorie Power Orange Barbers Gum I bought Blackjack gum in the blue and white paper wrapping, and chewed it all the way home past the shopfront stoops where old men squat sucking the bitter rind. Even the sun rests on your cheek a few seconds longer before remembering its orbit A clapsong in the water lilies when an egret soars to the sky. All day and not a single regret. For my cousins and me it's summer.
Sunlight filters down to wood fern and moss.
We wound the bend in the ragged road, ankles twisting in ruts from ancient rains. The pond is low. Only a trickle runs from the pipe my uncle used to tap the spring and bring it here. Damsel flies hover above the green algae along one side. A bullfrog speaks.