Night Bath Basin

The garden chill settled into my flanks as night took the lawn. Time to turn back. I hauled my belly toward the brick rim of the low concrete birdbath resting beneath the dark maple. Still. Shallow water mirrored the night sky like dark oil. I waited in the grass, measuring the cold pedestal. One heavy thrust of my front flippers drove me up over the rough concrete lip. The water surged aside, then closed firm around my belly. Heavy ripples hit the stone edge and steadied. Settled in the dark shallows.