Planting native species

Farkas paused over the hole she'd just dug. It was about six inches deep and water had already started seeping in, without any help from her, thank you very much. She sat back on her haunches and waited for the water to sink back into the soil. A chickadee called off to her left, but chicka'd only two dees, so it wasn't upset, just chatty. She looked back to the hole and almost all the water was gone. She picked up the pot and up ended it over the hole, giving it gentle but firm pats all along the sides and bottom of the plastic pot to loosen the soil.  Any soil that fell through her gloved fingers fell into the moist hole. She extracted the plant, a bloodroot, and felt the satisfying suction as the roots came loose from the pot. She sprinkled mycorrhizal fungi all over the roots, popped it into the hole, and centred it. She heaped the soil around the plant, pressing down gently and making a small well. She watered again.

Again she sat back on her haunches, and tapped the pot to get the last of the soil out. 

He'd gone to high school with her. He'd been an asshole even then. He'd grown into an even larger puckered buttpit when he went into real estate and eventually, opened his own development firm, his only aim in life to make money. 

Hard to believe they still hadn't found him yet. 

Who knew?

 Written June 26, 1989

Sssszzt! And the metal ring snaps open and tiny Don Ho bubbles fill up the air space above.

"Don't shush me" and I guzzle, faster than I should, ginger acids my nose hairs.

"Ow, ooo, oh!" Pain, not-so-pain, return to steady state.

I set the aluminum can down and open another before the first one is done with.

The spriting schpritzes rush about to & fro, here & there.

"Slow down, slow down."

Who knew?

Who knew that the sex we had with

    air conditioners,

    made in Japan,

    for Canadian winters

Would lead to this? This hole I cannot see above my head?

I tip both cans upside down on linoleum and gently place them in the blue box.

The Fantastic Aerial Odyssey of José-Antonio, or "Pennies in December"

Pennies in December

Coins in ice that don't let

Just anyone pick 'em up.

Half-smoked cigarettes

Lip-stick tainted

Pressed against cold lips, thin

"Ain't nothing like a good drag."

"Heard the grocery store's dumping bananas."

Throwing away everything that isn't beautiful.

Even pennies in December.