August 1st 2009

    There are ferocious moments in the vegetable garden.  Humidity rises on ground that is a little too wet, but beans need tending, and if left for one more day stringiness and rot begin to happen.  

    Under such circumstances Stink Bugs feel secure.  They will watch you approach, see the sweat on your brow, admire the redness in your face, wonder perhaps how at your age you have managed to bend your back so long.  Between them there is conversation, a matter of fact discussion about whether you will expire before or just after you reach the leaf upon which they are stubbornly accrediting their own next generation.

    Together they try to choose a path of avoidance.  They are agile, beady and suddenly they are acutely aware of their dangerous predicament.  You are bovine, clumsy and poor-sighted.  Then with an infuriating arrogance, they lift their wings and together they fly. 

    Chasing them will not produce a satisfactory conclusion.  You will spill fresh picked beans, trip and fall, while  they laugh all the way to the tomato plants, and next year their progeny will be even sneakier.

tim candler

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