Grey haired, head up, along the branch she returns. Descending the trunk, reward claimed, a hole is dug, and her later lunch is earth hidden. Onward squirrel ventures.
At the perimeter of the wood, man gathers, for the time of savoured sunbeams adorns the field. Soon, the revellers are many and the glistening green disappears underfoot. Union, community, the celebration of the human spirit proceeds. The splendour of song abounds across the air. Arms wave, bodies sway. Joyous moments echo into the ether. The cheer is dear.
Bass reverberates, treble permeates. To man, magnificent music. For her and them, unfamiliar noise. The thud-a-thud-thud pulses from the speakers, while the stomp, whoop, and hoorah usher in the lady moon and campfire haze. By now, the feathered flocks have fled, squirrels scattered, and nature’s life giver lays marred.
Lunches left, dinners discarded, a tip of triangular tents lived in for a weekend. Beer cans, plastic bottles, flyers, disposed vapes, cigarette butts, all planted into the land which does not know how to grow them. Smoke stench, excrement entwined, is a further intruder where there should be fragrant flora. Footprints are forged, of boot and carbon. Tyre treads tear unnatural trails that tire this once abundant plain. Sacred soil, scarred and soiled.
As the days of shortened sunlight surge, human hubbub is long gone. A former inhabitant returns. Squirrel stares across this space. There’s her large oak tree, but all around, a difference to the ground is haunting. She relocates the spot where her later lunch was hid and dig-a-dig-digs. Eventually, her tiny paws uncover a hard-shelled reward. But what is this? Much bigger a treat than she did cache. And why is this meal transparent bodied? With empty belly, gnaw she must on this treasure. Man’s water vessel, forever it will nestle.
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