When We Are Gone
by
Kenny A. Chaffin
It starts
with ants excavating the driveway, it will continue for years. They will bring
their detritus up through the cracks. The winter snows will melt and seep into those
cracks, freeze and force them open further. Water will gather, flow, settle, lift
and shift sidewalk slabs. Tree roots will drill into foundations, vines into
mortar and brick, climbing and covering. Wind-loosened shingles will lift and
fall, lift and fall, ‘til they fall away for good. The sun will bake the
asphalt shingles, the ice and rain will do their work, abrading and washing
grit into the rain gutters and down onto that driveway.
Manicured
lawns will fade as native plants reclaim their territory. Manicured shrubberies
will explode, twist and warp into their own shapes, their own selves. Flickers who
have always drummed upon flues in search of mates will continue drumming on the
rusting flues until those flues fall and can no longer be drummed upon.
Woodpeckers will open the way; honeybees will follow taking purchase within walls
protected from the elements.
About the Author
Kenny A. Chaffin writes
poetry, fiction and nonfiction and has published poems and fiction in Vision Magazine, The Bay Review, Caney
River Reader, WritersHood, Star*Line, MiPo, Melange and Ad Astra and
has published nonfiction in The
Writer, The Electron, Writers Journal and Today’s Family. He grew up in
southern Oklahoma and now lives in Denver, CO where he works hard to make
enough of a living to support two cats, numerous wild birds and a bevy of
squirrels. His poetry collections No
Longer Dressed in Black and The Poet of Utah Park are available as ebooks at Amazon.com as well as How
do we Know? a collection of science articles and essays. These and more
are available at his Amazon.com author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B007S3SMY8.
