Spring

This early morning was bright-eyed and fresh-eared. Rob Ickes romanced on Ireland as I passed through the knives of light cutting through the trees. The kind of beauty that threatens to destroy you, but not by a fervent heat; not by incineration, but by laceration. The mistress as she rises throws a veil over the warm stars of the west, shrouding this "universe of dark and diamonds" in an intense glow, something dangerous and sinister. I continued down 176, absolutely in love. Never had I seen such sinister cutting light, dashing through the trees, cutting me open to what life really is. I remember passing goose creek, crossing 17A, beholding wonderful open spaces where trees did not hold sway, though smelling bleeding trees by the tens of thousands, giving up their life for the benefit of man (though its not like they had a choice). It was cold, and the heater ran full blast on my hands and feet. The windows were down, you have to see this with no obstructions, not even glass. I got out of the car and with my bare feet ran into the gas station and handed eight dollars to the cashier. I couldn't wait to get back in the car and see more. There was so much to see. When I turned right onto 311 and crossed 6, not the route six that wraps America from side to side, but SC route six. I decided to turn around and go back the way I came. On the way back, I remember catching flashes of infinity amidst adolescent Douglass Firs, openings that bounded beyond the haze and all I could say was "wow". There was an ancient tree, covered in moss both of a neutral grey and a deep green, highlighted by the sunrise, it was too perfect. My final surprise at the end of my journey (the journey really ends when you hit carbon country, where cars dominate) was a fresh, slightly hazy field on both sides, full of springs first shoots of color. Bouquets of yellow flowerings lay beside the pillow of grass bunched up in the small ditch to each side, such lush green grass amongst deep red sprouts. It was the vision of my great plains fantasy.