The water dipper
Dented, squat, aluminum cylinder, with a flat handle / the length of a child’s forearm. It hangs on a nail / beside a five-gallon crock of well water that sits on a shelf / just inside a fly-stippled screen door.
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And nothing happened
I step out my front door and in the distance, I hear a freight truck and some cars. There is no thunder of tanks or rolling explosions. I look around my cul-de-sac, the fences are straight and painted. My neighbour has de-thatched his lawn. There are gardens quietly resting in backyards, fruit trees are dropping…
