Device

I watch silently.

With my coffee and poems, incense and prayers.

Two tom turkeys circle the pond, dancing for dominance around the tall purple flowers and brush piles.

A bluebird lands and enters the small round door of the birdhouse in one seamless motion.

Two passing deer catch my scent. They stop, sniffing the air with tails flipping. After deciding it’s safe, make their way behind the dam. Half an hour later one of them, not noticing me and deciding it’s safe again, will come back across the dam and drink at the edge of the pond before slipping away into the safety of the woods.

Unseen crows squawk and caw, raising hell somewhere in the distance.

A big snapping turtle rises, staying under the water for a few seconds before it’s head breaks the surface with the smallest ripple.

A bullfrog barks on one side of the pond and sets off a loud amphibious conversation around the pond.

The snail that’s been hanging on the side of the rocker for a few days like some mountain climber bivouacked overnight on the side of a rock wall, remains motionless.

The old cat lays by the glider, watching it all, occasionally letting out a tiny guttural sound, as if to remind us of the carnage he was once capable of.

I stand up to pull the porch ceiling fan chain and catch a small flash of movement on the far side of the pond. I’ve been spotted by a tiny, wobbly fawn that runs halfway across the dam before cutting hard into the dark between the big cedars. 

Having lit the incense, drank the coffee, read the poems and said the prayers, I watch all of this and feel myself genuinely a part of it all.

Then I reach for my 128 GB iPhone 11 with 6.1 inch multitouch screen, liquid retina HD 1792 x 828 display, 12 megapixel front and rear cameras, and check in for my morning dose of spiritual junk food and ego driven outrage.

Proud to have risen above the dumb animals…