<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Big Red<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Our pond is a symphony of stories.<\/p>\n
Dug twenty feet from our home<\/p>\n
in the horse pasture that long before<\/p>\n
had been part of a forest.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I look across at the totem that Vic built<\/p>\n
in a piece of old growth cedar that had<\/p>\n
been sitting in his yard.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
What do you see in it?<\/em> I asked<\/p>\n A Thunderbird<\/em>, he replied.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Across from that are big leafed plants three feet high,<\/p>\n maybe a hundred of them that monopolize a twelve foot hill,<\/p>\n a present from Miriam many years ago that was<\/p>\n one plant in a small pot that fit in my palm.<\/p>\n Most years I send her a photo saying something<\/p>\n like The kids done grown up!<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The first tree that I planted in the whole yard was a willow<\/p>\n to the south that once had orange paint on it<\/p>\n when we returned from a long trip and<\/p>\n turned out to be a swastika.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The neighbors urged me to call the police<\/p>\n but I wanted to figure it out for myself and<\/p>\n proved my mettle as a detective.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After a talk with the guilty kids<\/p>\n and parents there is now a peace pole<\/p>\n and shrub nearby that the boys planted as a<\/p>\n token of redemption and understanding.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And then there\u2019s Big Red that I haven\u2019t seen this year.<\/p>\n A monument to survival, he may have met his demise.<\/p>\n I used to put fifty feeder fish a year in the pond. They were small<\/p>\n and grey but grew large and beautifully orange\/red<\/p>\n until the herons would pick off every one of them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I outsmarted them and got a dozen fish too large for herons to eat.<\/p>\n The first night I heard the angry snarls of raccoons decimating<\/p>\n most of them but not Big Red and one other unnamed motley colored fish.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n They were survivors and have lasted many years.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I have a tinge of sadness as the water surface is still<\/p>\n but still I have some hope because I know Big Red<\/p>\n knows how to hide.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Yet I also know that the pond reflects all our lives<\/p>\n and the transitory nature of all sentient beings.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We\u2019re here for a while and then go the way of Big Red.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Big Red Our pond is a symphony of stories. Dug twenty feet from our home in the horse pasture that long before had been part of a forest. I look across at the totem that Vic built in a piece of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112540,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112528\/revisions\/112540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}