| [01:04.000] |
where the rats long fed; |
| [01:05.531] |
sweep out our shame—and in its place we'll make a bower for love, |
| [01:10.109] |
a splendid marriage-bed fragrant with flowers aquiver for the Spring. |
| [01:16.076] |
And when he comes, |
| [01:17.398] |
our murdered dreams shall wake; |
| [01:19.633] |
and when he comes, |
| [01:20.936] |
all the mute birds shall sing. |
| [01:56.592] |
rhododendron slick, |
| [01:57.664] |
and now climbing into an old-growth forest whose steepness had spared it from ever being logged. |
| [02:03.711] |
But even here, |
| [02:05.160] |
where a good oak-hickory canopy sheltered the ridge top, |
| [02:08.996] |
last night's rain had pounded through hard enough to obscure the tracks. |
| [02:14.215] |
She knew the animal's size from the path it had left through the glossy undergrowth of mayapples |
| [03:22.000] |
and now climbing into an old-growth forest whose steepness had spared it from ever being logged. |
| [03:28.339] |
But even here, |
| [03:29.678] |
where a good oak-hickory canopy sheltered the ridge top, |
| [03:33.150] |
last night's rain had pounded through hard enough to obscure the tracks. |
| [03:38.417] |
She knew the animal's size from the path it had left through the glossy undergrowth of mayapples, |
| [03:44.323] |
and that was enough to speed up her heart. |
| [03:47.534] |
It could be what she'd been looking for these two years and more. |
| [03:51.655] |
This lifetime. |
| [03:53.111] |
But to know for sure she needed details, |
| [03:56.033] |
especially the faint claw mark beyond the toe pad that distinguishes canid from feline. |
| [04:02.800] |
That would be the first thing to vanish in a hard rain, |
| [04:05.824] |
so it wasn't going to appear to her now, |
| [04:08.478] |
however hard she looked. |
| [04:10.105] |
Now it would take more than tracks, |
| [04:12.401] |
and on this sweet, damp morning at the beginning of the world, |
| [04:16.098] |
that was fine with her. |
| [04:18.053] |
She could be a patient tracker. |
| [04:20.563] |
Eventually the animal would give itself away with a mound of scat |
| [04:24.413] |
(which might have dissolved in the rain, too) |
