sweet auburn | 2022 volume ii
An injured , mangy coyote slowly limped across a thin cover of February snow .
A deer and I regarded each other with early-light curiosity .
The hawk just overhead : WHIRRR ! The breath of his wings stirring my hair . Squeaking chipmunks leaping for safety . Wondrous birds seen and heard with Bob Stymeist . The cryptic nighthawks above Washington Tower in the dark .
Monarch butterflies and New England swallowtails , studied intimately , through binoculars .
Not to mention , of course , the terrorist turkeys .
And there ’ s the salamander story . A few years back I got an email from the Cemetery . “ It ’ s the first warm rainy day of spring . The spotted salamanders in our vernal pool might have their Big Night tonight . Come at 7:30 and we ’ ll go see .”
So they have a Big Night ?? Get down and party , do they ? Well , yes . The salamanders hibernate in protected places near the pool . On the first warm , wet spring night , they emerge and head toward it . Males and females cavort together in the water , and a few days later , gelatinous masses of eggs result .
The pool still had a pancake of ice in the middle , though the margins were clear . As darkness gathered , we went slowly around it , shining our flashlights into the water to see if we could find salamanders . I loved being in the dark , moist air . “ Got one ! Got one ! I ’ ll put him in the tub !” Yes indeed , there in the bottom of the tub is a handsome salamander , black with yellow spots . We watch him and , possibly , he watches us . I love the salamander ’ s big eyes , an inscrutable matte black .
We admire him for a while , and let him go , and then most of us head back to the front gate .
The animals will be among us since we have come among them .
And Inward , to those resting here .
Once , not long after I began the inscription work , the late great Janet Heywood contacted me to say there was a person from some local radio station who wanted a Halloween story . What better place than the Cemetery ? And would I mind being interviewed while out on the grounds ?
I am afraid I did not give anything in the interview that was at all scary , disappointingly . Instead , I showed the radio person a wonderful and sad monument I had just finished with , on which the death of a young man “ Lost At Sea ” was inscribed . Sad but not scary . No ghosts . Sorry !
5