online: 27 september 2009 2009 modified: 26 september 2009 26 september 2009 autumn evening
...the pond is in shadow but the houses across the water are in sunlight... a man and a boy walk by... the man counts the number of fully grown cygnets still following the two swans and he is amazed that there are nine... and that none have died in their first four months... he tells me he's been coming here since he was a boy and he's never seen this number survive... nor have i... i've never before seen more than six cygnets remaining by autumn... sometimes only two or three
...the sky is pale blue with no clouds... only vapour trails which are now blown into irregular streaks ... a white-painted aircraft reflects sunlight as it turns from the south to the west as it approaches the airport... and now it's gone behind the trees and the scene becomes more local and i realise how much i like noting these small parts of the whole of what is happening... here and everywhere as one connected system, or divine accident, or perceived presence of nature and people and all of literature and pre-history and more more than i can list or even think about... some of it imaginary...
...a helicopter approaches and i marvel at the reliability of the complex gearbox that enables a helicopter's rotor blades to change angle of attack continuously in each rotation and thus to provide both lift and thrust and also keep the fuselage steady... but equally i marvel at each beating heart of every animal or creature with a circulation... and at these technical words that enable anyone who learns them to perceive and to design such seemingly fragile but amazingly safe systems... cough cough...
...the light is getting less and the body's feeling cold but the hands are still warm... a minute insect with a wingspan about two millimetres has just perched on my thumb and did not fly off until my blowing became the strongest blast my lungs can blow...
...now the moon's appeared above the trees... a half moon, now being seen more and more as containing water... not as fluid or even ice but in chemical combination with other molecules... and apparently there are geological signs of actual water flow in distant times... and now another tiny fly walks over the slippery surface on this touch-screen and flies off at a much gentler puff...
...and as i take a last look in the evening light the swans and cygnets swim by towards the place where they sleep... and i move away to return to the place where i do... and where i eat and excrete and edit this and do all the other things that comprise my existence... and that of many others...
pond 1
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