A Clean Cut Across Green

Slipped out through the gap under the screen door to see what midday had left on the corner. Stenciled right across the curb concrete was a fresh spray of vivid safety-green paint, wet and sharp-edged. Sitting in the gravel dirt right beside it was a forgotten wooden carpenter's dowel, snapped clean at both ends. No hurry at all. I picked up the pale dowel with both plush gloved hands, took an unhurried beat to gauge the layout, and laid its straight wooden seam dead diagonal across the green band. That light bar split the electric spray into two tidy triangles. Slouched right back against the warm curb stone, heels stretched out, totally content letting the two fields settle.