Pastoral

The garden in late summer: a pair of hummingbirds, one red and one green, chase each other above the trumpet vines heavy with flowers and green seed pods.  Meanwhile, sparrows, finches, and doves pick at the drying seed heads of the sunflowers that grew tall and sturdy in the brutal heat.  The lantanas have recovered from the freeze last winter and are in full bloom.  Blue storm clouds rise in the distance; hopefully, they are a promise of desperately-needed rain.  The spearmint and the bee balm haven’t flowered yet, but the catmint is covered with spikes of purple-blue flowers.  In the midst of an America gone insane, a moment of respite from the struggle to survive what are hopefully the last days of capitalism.