GRACK! Photo-Illustrated Web Columns from El Norte

… A little farther on I came upon a startling sight. Scattered among the trees were what could best be described as pieces of the exploded skeleton of a steer. I’ve encountered such scenes before, but this was different. These whitened bones showed no sign that anyone but me had ever found them. Scavengers had dragged the carcass here and there, as evidenced by the trail of ribs and vertebrae, resulting in a plainly natural arrangement. In my mind’s eye, I could see coyotes pulling at the hide or tugging on a leg….

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… I had never seen the like and sat there dumbfounded as the deer began to swim across, heading for a wooded bluff I doubted they would ever reach. All I could see were three brown heads bobbing perilously above the water, moving much too slowly, as far as I could tell. The dogs stood panting in the shallows with their tongues hanging out for hardly any time at all, then wheeled and ran off in pursuit of other game. It was all but over in an instant, or so it seemed, and quiet, like I’d dreamed the whole thing up, except for three little brown heads with floppy ears, far out in the middle of the river…

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… I was an adult student taking a music theory class. She was teaching, sitting on the edge of a table at the front of the room, her legs hanging down. It was a warm, humid early spring day and the windows were wide open. Her sandals didn’t quite reach the floor, and I watched her toes stretch and curl every which way as she talked. Unconsciously arousing on her part then, from this vantage point now, it was like watching tadpoles darting plump and shiny at the edge of a sunlit pond…

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