Exit Highway 377 to the South Llano Valley, drive over the low-water crossing and hear the river funnel under the concrete bridge, turning to white water in its southward journey. You may park near a pecan grove to watch a sleek young doe graze belly-deep in bluestem. Down river the bank becomes sheer, and a chinaberry draped with grapevines grows near the drop. Imagine a boy swinging here. Walk half-a-mile from the river where the land rises above floods. Your footsteps ring on wooden steps to the old ranch house. A long verandah sweeps its length, and you pause to sit in the porch swing painted a muted green. Walter Buck, single and childless, donated this land to the State of Texas. Look beyond the pecan trees to the Llano, and know he lived in paradise.

       pecan shells
       cracked between palms
       eating alone
 

__________________________________________________________

Lynn Edge lives in Texas and enjoys the RV lifestyle which provides material for her writing. Her haibun have appeared in Rose and Thorn, Wilmington Blues, Flash in the Pan and other ezines. She is currently working on a chapbook entitled New Mexico Missives.
E-mail: ledge3374 at yahoo dot com  

__________________________________________________________

home