You see things up close from the back of a bicycle. Take roadkill. (Please.)
The first day you see a dead skunk in the middle of the road, it's like a recently vacated auditorium. The essential skunkness is gone but you see plenty of signs it existed only moments before.
The second day the body has begun to deflate a bit. By the third it's quite flat and the luxuriant black-and-white coat is a faded memory. On the fourth day, only teeth and claws and a few odd bits rise above a puddle of nothingness. In another day or two, you may see a greasy shadow, but maybe nothing at all.
Vibrant to vacant. Powerful to powerless. Here to gone.
It's all such a mystery.
10 comments:
What a great progression (description-wise, I mean).
I couldn't help but imagine the scent...
What a bummer.
Ewwwwww....
We had babies wandering around our yard, in broad daylight, last week. We called the city and they said they had the mom trapped and were trying to trap the babies. He also said babies spray a lot more than adults cause they can't control it. they're gone this week. I hope they were trapped and moved somewhere else. They were darn cute, tho.
Great descriptions and, ick.
Hmm, this made me laugh and go "yep".
;)
Laugh, because of your first line about take roadkill, please. Not because of the dead stuff. Ahem. lol
;)
I read a Mary Oliver poem about a skunk just this morning. This piece could have been one of hers. Gorgeous writing.
Sweden is a skunk free country, but we do kill a moose here and there. It has to be removed though...as well as the person (and car) who killed it.
its a mystery to me you kept looking day after day-descriptive and gross! but of course- excellent writing
Post a Comment