Inspired By: Putting my Feet In The Dirt Prompt # 4 Spilling Stella

Image by Erin Hanson

The field behind my house

hums.

Of course, you could say what I’m hearing are bugs flying around

or I am hearing the power lines working away

they way they do

but I’m not so sure about that.

I’ve walked through that field with my dog and the minute we start to break a path

through the

grass and nettles, the humming stops

and all I can hear are our footsteps and our breathing

and the crunching of dry grass and twigs left over from the previous fall.

I’ve stopped to take pictures

I’ve stopped to give my dog a drink of water

I’ve even dug around a little bit, to see if anything scuttled away from us

through the grass and under the brush

just to see if it hummed as it ran away, or maybe it would growl.

Nothing hummed, nothing moved

it was as quiet as a cemetery out there

in that field behind my house where despite all of the sounds I hear

I am sure that whatever is out there is hungrily listening

to us breathe.