The cool breeze drifts through the branches and limbs of pines and maples sending any loose foliage onto the dark brown earth below. The sun stretches across the sky. It is nearly halfway through its daily cycle. The sun gets caught in-between intermingling braches of different tress. Only individual columns of light hit the floor below the canopy. They illuminate the ferns and mosses. Bugs scatter even lower. Red ants gather bits of dark dirt and march them toward the mound. Some carry food to feed the rest of the colony and to help increase the kingdom of the queen. Large worker ants move small rocks out of the path's way with their giant pinchers. They don’t have eyes and can not eat for themselves, so smaller ants clean and feed the larger land movers. Black spiders patter up trees towards large webs strung out between the trunks of trees and low hanging branches. Small wads of silken thread denote future meals for the eight legged trap layers. Large sacks of white signal the next generation while the layers of the eggs guard their investment. Their hair covered legs scramble over their mazes of thread-like web, one stops to repel down back onto the floor riding a single strand of its entrapping and constructing tool. Squirrels dart back and forth over the grass banks between sidewalks and roads searching for whichever morsel of food they may find. Grey squirrels precede their bushy tails up trees and shake limbs sending down their desired dish. Red squirrels with black and white stripes running down their backs hide into holes in the ground the food they’ve found.
The cool breeze is a break from the humid air that hovers over. Patches of grass have faded from the bright green that the majority of grass shines to pale yellow and light browns.
Sprinklers leave puddles and tiny streams of sprayed white water on the dirt and sidewalks. They spray water mechanically into the air that mists down onto the grass leaving water droplets. The water makes mud of the rust colored dirt. Pools of filthy water collect in dirt basins. Darting into the puddles, mosquitoes leave ripples that surge outward on all sides to the muddy banks of the tiny lakes. Bike tires slosh the water and mud onto the damp grass and the wetted sidewalk.
The cool breeze blows a haze of clouds near the heat of the sun. They meander in front of the glowing orb and cast shade over stretches of the landscape. When they move away sun light slowly reilluminates the land, stretching and reshaping the shadows. Chill spaces under trees get colder when the clouds create a general shade, but warm up again when they sun beats back down on the land directly. Groups of clouds move together and change color. They turn from a soft white to a steel gray and then to a hazy blue. The threat of rain covers they sky, but the breeze picks back up and blows the would-be storm to another down poor.
The cool breeze stops blowing and the humidity makes the air thick. Fewer animals are seen scurrying about. The squirrels and insects that remain move briskly across small fields of grass. The sun begins its decent toward the horizon and the sky’s color reddens. The bright greens of the grass mellow into light yellow tinged greens. The yellows turn to pale browns. The browns grow darker. The silhouette of the move slowly fades into view. With less sunlight pouring onto the ground and pavement, they start to cool down and the humidity subsides. Squirrels and insects start moving again across the grass plains and sidewalk barrens. Joggers bounce around the brim of blocks of crabgrass and walkers bring curious young dogs onto the sidewalks. They sniff around the ground. When they locate a squirrel they become alert, as does the squirrel and it runs away. The young dog goes back to its sniffing. A faint gust blows by and rustles the dead leaves. They get crushed by any forced applied and crackle when the force is taken off. The vanes of the living leaves carry nutrients to all parts of the leaf and protect it from falling off of the branch. The sprinkler water feeds the trees and grass it reaches. Some trees do not receive the drink and lose their leaves.
The bark of the trees is hard and ridged. Knots and tumors litter some trunks. Others lead to exposed humps of solid roots. Pine needles gather on dusty patches of pale purple dirt under their trees. Some lay in pairs connected at the top by a short sleeve grown over the ends of the needles. The needles do not touch, save for the sleeved end. Fallen needles touch and overlap in piles. The ground is sectioned off in groups of alternating piles. Patches of pine needles circle under trees near the bases while dead and dying leaves cover the ground between the shadows that the tree’s branches and leaves create.
The sidewalks make a web of walk ways. The web divides the large yard of grass into triangular sections. Blue grey fences separate the side walks and grass from a plain of red dirt. The dirt is smoothed flat. Small mounds of earth still rise up against. Tiny red rocks of packed dirt are scattered across the expanse. Tire marks curve and sway over the face of the rust packed earth. The red dirt shines with an orange tint in the lowering sun. It crumbles and falls between the spaces of the metal fences. The steel fence is spotted with white and black. The specks are wrapped all through out the fence. The posts are rounded at the top and flow into cylindrical shafts that plow directly into the ground. The chain length fills the spaces between the posts. The thin circular wire leaves square gaps with rounded corners. Dozens of them form the chain length and serve to keep things outside and in the red dirt yard.
Water geysers from and underground fountain. The water rises into the air and falls back to the mother of pearl cement in the small path. Some of the water mists off into the air. Most of the water pools around square drains. The drains have filters that the water flows through. Though the water pools back down toward its underground source, the cement the water smashes into from the sky remains wet. The water darkens the cement into a green gray. It is slimy and slippery. The water blasting from the ground is entirely white. All of the water that leaves the fountain is falling. From the moment it is shot into the air it begins to fall and does not stop until it hits the cement and flows into the small pools. The center of the fountain is lower than the surrounding cement to allow for pooling and draining.
Black metal benches are scattered across the field of grass under shade trees. Small bushes are nestled against the giant brick walls of buildings. The shrubs are olive green. They are pruned into squares ands rectangles. The shapes keep the branches from the bushes from touching. In front of some walls the bushes are unpruned and the branches tangle and intermingle. The bushes blend into one another. The short black trunks root into the ground and are hidden by the shade from the branches and leaves.
The cool breeze blows onto the dead leaves and pine needles scattering them from where they were resting. The wet areas of sidewalk and cement start to dry. The fountains stop spouting water into the sky. The sprinklers stop showering the grass and trees. The sun fades further into the horizon. Squirrels and spiders, ants and dogs, make their move away from the grass plains. Into trees, colonies, webs, or houses they all move back. The moon grows bright in the sky, stealing its moonlight from the sun’s light. Stars begin to twinkle in the deep purple sky and the humidity makes the air thick again between the burst of chilling breeze. Raccoons and bats start to stir and scavenge or hunt for their meals as night billows from the setting sun and brightening moon.
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