Raccoon tracks are etched clearly in the powdery dust.
Fox tails, those grass seeds equipped with daggers and drills, bore implacably into socks and running shoes. Goat heads, those seeds encased in multi-pronged hard casings puncture bike tires. Curse-worthy as they may be, these seeds are, in their design, only trying to propel themselves to new territory where they might establish new kingdoms.
The back field, newly harrowed and dragged, is dry and dusty, but already laden with millions of seeds, which arrived airborne or broadcast by birds and mammals, or ejected a matter of inches from their mother plants. An immense variety of native and foreign grasses, thistles, clover, poppies, morning glory, vetch, alfalfa, miner's lettuce and others is now latent in the dust.
The desiccated earth is riven by cracks, inches wide and deep.
Fig leaves transmitted afternoon light.
Citizens competed to grow squashes, melons and flowers most nearly approaching perfection. The winning produce graced the Lake County Fair.
Sleek champion livestock basked under florescent lights in the big barn at the fair.
