SKUNK WATCH                 _ _                       23 Jun 2023
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I saw a skunk today, while I was out walking under starlight and
moonlight and streetlight; it was surprised to see me, I think,
since it came right up behind me and then stopped stock still
once I turned around -- but I got away unsprayed, only wishing a
little that I'd thought to bring my glasses with me.

Keen eyesight seems less important at night, for whatever
reason; I held out on getting corrective lenses for a long time,
when I was littler, and went to astronomy workshops at a
planetarium without being able to see the stars as any other
than just bluish smudges overhead.  Come nightfall, though,
there's no need to navigate by details, not really.  Cricket
songs, and petrichor, and stretches of shadow to linger in as
I pass them by.

A lot of people seem to get skittish when they can't see
everything around them, like there be devils lurking just out of
sight; but somewhere in my hindbrain there's a pair of wires
crossed, insulation all melted away, because there's nothing
scarier to me than a flat, open plain, just little hills and
divots for miles and miles.  Nowhere for aught to spring out
slavering, nowhere to lie in wait for the unwary, nowhere to go
for any what wants to stay out of sight, out of mind.

Out of reach.

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