Aberdeen, Churchville, and Havre de Grace, Maryland, April 9, 2017

★★★★ The birds were yelling in the morning and the sun was on the hyacinths. Cows were out in the field, in various colors and stances. Two motorcycles with two riders apiece turned off the state highway. A crow flapped low across the road, more white than black in the hard sunlight. The slope down to the bay was covered in soft purple flowers and tiny blue ones. Low brown waves plashed under the boardwalk. A mantis the length of a thumbnail clung to a trouser leg. The sun was too strong to risk leaving chocolates in the car. Up above the defensive positions weakly held in the War of 1812, a quad-rotor drone buzzed on the sky. The nature offered for consideration was still bare and mucky. Back at the house, the five-year-old urged his brother to run around with him in the dark, out to the edge of the electric light spilling over the lawn, under the haloed rising near-full moon. Back over the roofline, Orion’s top shoulder shone bright amber.