Desert
close
1
my
my
eyes, and
Dream
thoughts
39 back
drift
suddenly fmd myself nine years old again,
where we used
the old rusty, white trailer
County, Nevada. The
first
thing
notice
I
in time.
I
the backyard of
in
to live in Churchill
the feeling of
is
pure freedom and ignorant bliss that comes with childhood. I
feel that, if
1
can
my
feel
I
want
to,
I
my arms and fly away. blowing my hair around
can just flap
the soft afternoon breeze
upturned face.
smile as
I
sagebrush growing
all
I
breathe in the pungency of the
around me. Oh, what a wonderful
smell!
hear the annoying cry of magpies as they settle in the
1
thorny Russian olive trees, shaking their long, black-and-
white
tail
feathers.
barks loudly
in
Elsie,
our brown-and-black mutt dog,
reply and jerks at her chain, wrapping
around a pole. Her
it
father. Bear, just sits quietly in the
of his doghouse and wags
his tail at
me.
I
shade
hear a rustle in the
bushes, and a dust-colored jackrabbit hops into view, where
he stands for a
moment looking
swiveling one of his long ears springs
away on
huge hind
our direction. Then he
feet,
hopping two or three
feet
over the sagebrush.
in the air
glance up just in time to see a white pelican overhead.
1
I
his
with disapproval,
at Elsie
in
notice a bold eagle soaring in the distance.
1
glance
at the
beckoning Sierra Nevada mountains on the horizon and notice that there feel
1
my
is still
movement
snow atop
near
my
their peaks.
and
legs,
I
look
down
legs,
meowing
for
my
attention.
I
reach
down
thankful that Freddie has learned to
when coyotes
trailer hill
are near.
I
my
to pet his
long, ftuffy fur and notice coyote tracks nearby.
the
to see
large brown, black, and white cat Freddie against
jump up on
I
shiver,
top of the
follow the tracks partway up
with Freddie lazily following. I'm startled by a
sound in a nearby clump of sagebrush. I turn, scoop remember all too well up Freddie, and run down the hill. the time had to kill a rattlesnake by dropping a large rock rattling
1
I
Stacey Weston
