The sun had shrunk to a dime, passing behind the smallest of clouds; the field was root bare -- shorthorns had grazed it to leather. August's coldest day when the green, unlike its former self, returned to earth as metal. Then from a swamp I saw two large shadows floating across the river, move up the sloping bank, float swiftly as shadows against the field toward where I stood. I looked up as two great red-tailed hawks passed overhead; for an instant I felt as prey then wheeled to watch them disappear in southward course. |