futurebird's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- in the big shadow of the earth Running around in the dark and the cold: it�s asking for trouble. I should have known. The snow was as hard as sand. The wind kicked it up to bite my face and legs. The sky was so clear I felt as though I could see all of space through the trees. On the path that rests on the shoulder of the little valley a man was standing in the big shadow of the earth holding on to a grim black dog at the end of a rope. Not a lease, a rope, wound creaking cords. As I pass him he turns his head, covered by a brown, quilted hood, so I can�t see his face. There�s not much light this deep in the trees, even with their limbs bare and the street lamp far up at the highway casting a few rays my way. I couldn�t have seen his face anyway not in this dark. Still he turns his head away. The dog isn�t pulling or barking just looking with his flat head low and his front paws spread ready to run at or from me. I was fully frightened and I forgot my cold legs and the thoughts I�d had just a few moments before of slowing down. I chewed up the path and made my way to the city lights. Every time I start to ask �why was he out there?� I remember that he could ask the same of me. �why was I out there?� A bare legged runner on a frosty night. A shy old man with a black dog. Crazy! The both of us. 01:09:18 - 2000-12-30 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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