4:37 p.m. - 2019-02-15
threehundredtwentythree
yesterday i remembered to out the sprinkler on the garden. when i came to turn it off i heard a strange noise, a series of short staccato vibrations. so i peeped through the leaves and saw three blackbirds playing under the sprinkler. they were glossy, slick and black as summer tar. when i turned the water off they fled.
the next morning on my walk i went past a snail, ambling up a wall. i walked past again, and he had turned and was heading down. the final time i saw him he was back midway, retreated into his shell. where were you going, snail? i mean, are you as indecisive as me?
just now reading venus in furs under the hard afternoon sun i heard a strange clackclackclack. then it came again. i spotted a starling using the brick path to smash open a snail shell to reach the good stuff inside. when it got the goods it whacked it some more against the path, a sad sort of slap-slap-slap, with more power and purpose than i've ever assigned to a bird.
starlings are loud and annoying and bully all the other birds away from the bird food. and then go and eat snails for pudding.
[the vogues :: five o'clock world ]
