Pinnacle Rock: The Dirt Road in Lake County

The Dirt Road in Lake County

On the dirt road in Lake County, California,
I saw a little, playful headbutting
between two, baby cows, calves,
- were they male or female?
I don't know -
on a beautiful, oak ridge,
near Harbin,
this morn. The oak trees,
dotting the ridge, above them,
in full, spring leaf,
filled out this 'Ferdinand the Bull' scene.
This could easily be Greece, or Spain,
in mediterranean, inland California,
virtually.
And this baby playfulness,
perhaps 10 cows and calves
all around,
on a perfect day,
has probably gone on
long before that thriving
culture on Samos, Greece,
with its aqueduct,
the 2,540 years old
Tunnel of Eupalinos,
- Herodotus's 8th world wonder,
I think -
and long before the first cities
of 10,000 years ago, -
as part of agriculture,
in time immemorial.

Two woodpeckers then alit
on a branch, very close,
black & white, with red heads -
a pair they were, -
then flipped under the branch,
still attached, upside down,
echo-pecked a little,
and flew away, displaying
their magnificent, small, wing spans from
below, black & white,
all spread out, in beautiful expansiveness.

These rolling hills & trees,
a bucolic, pastoral, calming scene,
Ferdinand-peaceful,
after good, needed sleep! ~
such beauty in solo-ness.


The cows are gone, now.

A brown truck,
a little fumy,
with two men of
Spanish-Mexican descent,
drives by on this
wide, beautiful, well-maintained,
dirt road ... They look like
salts of the earth,
one man smiling,
as I too smile at him,
in passing.
Who are they,
in this other world?
Might they have staged
this gentle calve-romp, -
for, soon after the headbutting,
another calf rolled over,
almost playfully,
too cute,
and stood back up,
up on the ridge,
where I had seen turkeys,
of an earlier poem -
through knowledge of, and
skill with, livestock and cattle?

A kid on a too-small, motor scooter,
- that looks like fun,
and this could be Greece, again -
then passes, legs asunder,
hair flying, under his knit hat.
He looks as if he may be
heading to school.
Are his hands cold?

Ranch land, with pasture and oaks,
on both sides of this road,
sun shining, no houses ...
in this out of the way place, -
and Ferdinand is very happy now.


Soon to Harbin ...


Harbin ...
yes ...
It's always different,
its own thing, and
so enlivening.

(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2011/05/pinnacle-rock-dirt-road-in-lake-county.html - May 24, 2011)