Hodie

I poured a cup of coffee this morning and then let the dogs out into the back yard. Standing on the ice-slick deck, I listened to the sounds from the dark. Fog made everything sound close, amplified yet muffled.

A deer broke and ran in the woods. I could hear the heavy rhythmic thumping as it leapt over logs and obstacles on its way to the far fence. Jinx was transfixed by the sound, but I suspect he knew better than to give chase.

It occurred to me just then that so much these days is obscured by fog and darkness. I do not know all of what moves out there in the hidden regions…is the noise something fleeing from me, or rushing towards me?

It’s good to have a secure door by which to enter the warm, safe, well-lit house, a door to close and lock. And then comes the time of quiet sitting, listening to my own breath, and the soft snores of the dogs in their beds, and the air from the furnace, and the tick-tock of the clock on the wall with its polished pendulum, and the silent sound of my morning turning into day, which will turn again into night and dark.

The sun is coming up in the east. Today is here, and there will never be another like it.

~ S.K. Orr