. i lay my weapon down .. i lay my weapon down ."Why didn't you just take it slow girl?" The woodchuck snorts at the cloud of smoke I release while lookin' sideways at his shiny blackish brown eyed gaze. His whiskers twitch and he gives a short closed-eye sneeze. "Dunno Chuck, I never seem to pause, to get a hold." Shoulders rise and fall gracelessly. It's another grey day, this weather is something Chuck and I like in common and we'd argued about who owned the yard and what parts of the day. We'd settled."No sage words for you then girl." Chuck brings a long hooked black claw to his left ear and gives a digging scratch at it. "Damn fleas, damn em all." I look across the yard at the scarlet and yellow Cardinals swooping to catch insects; peck peck peck, and then back into the low branches of an untrimmed locust tree. I nod my head at the wisdom of the woodchuck."Ya give all ya can Chuck ... that's all to be done. Never learned
