A Nudge and Smile

February the Last Day

It isn’t May yet but, if you notice, creatures are already acting funny. I saw a couple birds who must have evaded quarantine when they returned from wherever. Perhaps they were tired of the B and S of Covid compliance suggestions, tired of endless Netflix viewing and came home early. I guess the long, undefended, unfenced border makes it easy to just scoff at regulations. Perhaps these feathered ones are equally as well-feathered as Tom…no, Ted Cruz or any of the other North American politicos and wealthy turkeys who don’t have to stay home or quarantine. So, there they were…puffing out the chest, flapping the wing, hopping closer to objects of desire who sat, preening, on the garage roof next door. Oh, the sweet nudge and smile of delicious spring!

(The birds are scoffing at more than mandated regulations, having included social mores and customs in their scoffing. They weren’t wearing masks and I heard a teensy kerfuffle, noticed a bit of ‘menage a fowl’ going on for a moment. A little coupling or trying to was happening right there in plain view. My guess is that Facebook will block any posts including such bold avian love…although, I have only my supposition as evidence that what was happening was love. It might have been just routine. It might have been the, “Let’s get this over with!” attitude toward an ordained or pre–arranged coupling/marriage. Who is to say?)

Not ready for nudge and smile, the plants are quiet still. You can feel them saving their green for a brighter day. The little bushes I put in last year are straight and tall, looking eager but cautious. Maybe they know something about future exchange rates and are still waiting for an auspicious time to cash in. The colour won’t be out for an even longer time. Nope, there is no forsythia. I can see not much moving in the wood, either, only sleepy buds on the trees. One note: the squirrels (who are also on the trees) are pretty active. They have been breaking into vacation homes and watching TV on the big screens all winter. Now, they are ‘out and about’, tossing empty Tim’s cups as if they imagined mom was going to clean it all up. Of course, she will… she always does.

Mother Earth takes it all back in and sorts it for recycling. Over thousands of millions of years, stuff that breaks or wears badly and gets tossed aside sits, waiting for clean-up and re-use. Relentless, the good, useful stuff breaks because it weakens and gets rusty or sometimes it is just plain cheap crap to begin with. In any case, everything that ever was turns into crap. Crap is like a mandated state to change toward. Crap and stuff and change keeps Mother Earth feeling needed.

Everything changes condition like water in it’s cycle. All of the crap becomes food, gets eaten or used up, becomes crap again ad nauseum. Crap and water evaporate, condense, freeze a little, flow a little and, evaporate again. The same crap and the same water for ever. The same stuff. The crap gets squeezed by extra crap tossed on top and turns into oil. We burn that, making smoke or mirrors and putting out the resulting fires with water. It looks like the water might be running out or we might be running out of crap but all that is still here. It is a different shape when we are finished but it doesn’t go anywhere. We don’t go anywhere, either. That is the recipe.

Sweet Mother has a certain way with the little bit of a stove she keeps about 93million miles away. She keeps the thing lit although it’s anyone’s guess how. She has a magic source of pre-split wood from somewhere. She doesn’t seem to break a sweat chopping and it’s a good thing too, with all of her other tasks. The lady is pretty darn well occupied here and there, cleaning up crap, turning the lights on and off, warning all of the little creatures. “If I hear you kids messing around again, I am going to come in there and sort you out! Don’t make me do it!” I can see her with a ‘camo’ bandanna wrapped around her head and tied in front, her dusty apron flapping in the extra-heavy hurricane breeze as she tries to make life afraid to do anything except behave.

The birds today reminded me that Mother is busying herself about in other ways, pushing the romance and ‘get things going’ buttons as well as managing all else she does. I saw a young couple of human folk at the marina. Mother was pushing her ‘keep it rolling, time is a’wasting’ button and those folks started inching toward each other on the park bench. “mmm..hmmmm,” I thought, “Mama’s busy making more birds and humans out of recycled crap.”

Though she is always busy, Mother is busier at the moment of history we find ourselves in. It is our fault. I think she got pissed. Humans upset the balance because we learned how to kill and eat everything or turn it into a ‘smart’ phone. We started to believe in crap for crap’s own sake. Pink crap. Blue crap. ‘Luxury’ crap. More crap. MORECRAP. ‘New and Improved Crap’. All of the crap became too much and the noise of it’s turning from one phase to another woke up Mother. She was only resting and now we are going to catch hell because of our farting around.
A few of us will be swept away when she empties the wash pail. A few of us will be choked out when she dusts the broom. A few of us will get thirsty and die when she is delayed making rain. Some of the plants and cows will, too.

The changes are coming. Mom is awake and pissed. Funny thing is, being a mom means she doesn’t stay pissed forever. Some of our toys will be locked up and we might have to quarantine in the corner for a while but Mother will let us out eventually. There we will sit, edging closer to each other on the bench, watching the birds do the same thing…and the cows and the dandelions and the fish. All of it will come back at some point after it disappears. It would be nice if we could at least try to behave a little bit now, though.

Maybe it is apple polishing but I am trying to get on the good side and help out by not using plastic bags — walking to the market — planting bushes — pressing one for liquid and two for solid, etc. As to keeping things going, I always was a good one for sidling up to some other person who sat on the park bench. Ha ha. No trouble there excepting the ‘tab A and slot B’ part. Ooooops. ‘s okay, though. I see enough youngsters of different variety working away at the ‘moon and June’ bit. It will all keep going, we’re good. Ah yes, the nudge and smile of spring.