Nurture your Nature

A day of melting

Puddles, slush, the thickness of slush, like ... mucous.

Abandoned hot water heater, roof drain spouting a cadence of water, icicles hanging 3 feet where in the shadow of the Babbs, the sun won't reach.

Old door leaning at the back of the Babbs; the ringer not working.

A rivulet running past the defunct Indian restaurant. Black bags overflowing the dumpster by the brewery. Orange peels between the ruts of slushy ice where the bare pavement glistens back; the stones in the asphalt: greywacke, red and rust.

A slip and water enters the shoes.

Green tape around a power pole (begging not be hit). A thin rainbow of gasoline or oil. A shard of fallen ice, slick to the touch.

No birdsong. No sounds except occasional traffic and the ever present water.

The why by the tattoo parlor where this alley bends. One ending where the other begins.

The alley west of Higgins between 3rd and Brooks. 2008, December 28th, Missoula Montana.

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