Wild Cherries

The lake is a known pickpocket. Every soothing wave habitualizes a gentle rocking molestation that turns into blind theft. Blue Algae does not care about some dream destination in France while straddling the plastic sleeves of your credentialed papyrus. However, the poison bloom does have a slow moving fascination with an inorganic compound that shows no ill effect hours after being subject to its necrotic caress. Ravens noise their loud debate over who will claim your glinting Swiss Army Knife, so do not lay it down. Made You Look is a favorite game of the forest. Your delicate skin is prodded by the ridged spine of milk thistle. Upon torquing your upper body was a force generated strong enough to dislodge folded Ray Ban sunglasses into soft grass. Before noon, the handles of them will jut out of a beaver's dam. The loose movie ticket stubs in your windbreaker already line the perimeter of a starling's nest. For each quarter mile ventured into the woodlands, you have been made to pay tolls of human vanity along the way. This place taxes you in novel trinkets, and when that revenue source is exhausted, it reconfigures a contract payable in character. When the trail mix empties, and the canteen dries out, who will be the first to mortgage their Christianity? I have seen hiking mates crouched by a tree chewing on something that was not shared. We used to take our rest breaks together, now we stagger them with half of our company fifteen minutes ahead of those who needed immediate respite. Friendships are now reorganizing around needed skills sets. You can tell who lost a seat in the musical chairs of our dire situation. Conversation flows strongest between those who occupy the leader board. Any who need medical attention use silence as their exposed belly. Beyond carrying an extra bag, or clearing out difficult terrain, we have no enduring solution to their compromised health. The strongest among us are slow to speak their names, editing them in real time. Go-betweens emerged naturally to transmit non-negotiable instructions. Understanding the politics of vulnerability, infirmed members simply appealed their case to hapless delegates as if they could not see those who issued them. If authority haggles, it can not be respected. Only at the faint sound of distant traffic did we rediscover a now awkward fraternity.