There was a cooling aroma in the morning air. I drove through the country this morning on a slow pace in order to memorize my surroundings. I could feel the change in temperature as I drove into the lazy dips in the road that nurtured islands of swampy ponds…
I pulled into an overgrown driveway that still held onto leggy rose bushes that seemed to plead for my admiration. I looked up at a tidal wave of kudzu vines that towered over ancient oak and pine trees. They stood sentry around an abandoned farmhouse that had finally given into the kudzu’s trespass.
I crept through the weeded reminisces of the overgrown yard into a cotton field. The rows of plants stood chest high for as far as the misty morning would allow me to see. There was wetness in the air… I could smell the soil under my feet. The morning dew hung on the leaves of the cotton plants. The white tufts of raw cotton clung tightly to their leathery hulls.
I felt the water that wicked through my shirt onto my skin. The breeze cooled the air around my neck as I watched a black butterfly gallop across the tops of the sea of green and white. My eyes caught sudden movement from beside my head… a dull yellow maple leaf kissed my cheek on its targeted passage to the ground.
I caught it on my shoulder and held it between my fingers to use it to shield my hands from the wet plants on the way back to the Jeep. I pulled away onto the road and laid the leaf on the seat next to me. It nervously rocked from side to side as my speed increased.
… it took flight… I stabbed at the air trying to capture it once again. The leaf flew from window to window flapping with the sound of a dove’s wings. Finally in a burst of energy… it escaped into the winds.
I reflexively slowed to a stop as I watched it settle to the black pavement… I stretched to exit my seat as a helpful gust of wind lifted it back into the air and into the teasing roadside grass. I smiled a smile as I drove away on my morning’s journey…
Shannon R Killman
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