Bones

My first find was a young cow skull with horns in Holopaw, FL. Although it must have been there for quite some time, it was relatively clean -- & adorable. I rode back to camp on the back of a Yamaha holding this head in my lap as if cradling a motherless kitten. I was 10 years old & on a ride-along with my father & a few hunters. I watched them hang & clean the day’s reapings. That was the first time I learned what a functioning digestive system smells like. I watched entrails free fall into galvanized tubs poorly catching a chaotic bloodbath of ruptured organs. So susceptible, so amenable, provocative really. It made me realize just how fragile, how mortal we all are. All we have is the present moment. This too shall pass.