Highlands at Sunset
Sitting on the back porch looking over the lake, I can hear a dog bark. Somehow, just by the bark, anyone could tell that it’s tied up. There are these little bugs that fly over the water. They don’t seem to go anywhere. Instead, they just fly up and down, up and down. Some small bird that flies like a bat darts in and snacks on them. Further afield (or on a lake, is it alake?) a red canoe slowly glides by with a teenage kid. He’s fishing for trout. While I could never think of the sound that an oar makes bumping into the side of a canoe, once I hear it, I know exactly what it is. His fishing line make a sparkling straight line on top of the water that is highlighted by the setting sun. Somewhere on shore, off to the left but around the corner from my vision, another kid talks to him. They talk in adolescent but quiet voices. They know to be quiet when fishing. While I can’t hear the exact words, I can tell by the sing-song cadence that they are deep Appalachian born. All of this