September 2021 - 47
mistakenly as a sign of overgrazing. On her
little ranch in the high country, she carefully
directed the cattle away from an open table
that she unoriginally referred to as the " North
Forty, " but sagebrush grew there anyway.
In the mind-film of my memory, I see my
first mule deer buck there, stotting his way
across that flat toward the beaver ponds on
the northwestern edge where he met a bullet
from my first rifle. I remember the scent of
sage on his hide and I have only to smell it
on the hide of the dozens of other big game
I have taken from the abundance that is the
sagebrush steppe to be back there again, 14
and afire.
If ennui lifts up through bone and blood, I
rise from this desk and walk toward that scent,
following my nose into it as my bird dogs
follow chukar and Hun perfume as if pulled
by God's fishing line. There, up on the bench,
with the last songs of summer's sage sparrows
and thrashers in my ears, I forget what was
dragging me down just as one might leave a
cold, half-empty coffee cup after the caffeine
has done its magic. Up on the bench among
my old friends, there is no blue thought I
cannot out-walk, toward a horizon that rolls
on forever, rolling and rising and falling like
the ocean that it is. Give me this, please, give
me this until I see what is over that next hill.
- Tom Reed lives with his family on a small
ranch that is thankfully half sagebrush. When
he's not writing, he is walking in it. His books
are available at the Game and Fish Store.
- Lori Eslick is an illustrator, artist, presenter,
children's picture book illustrator, author and
workshop leader. She regularly creates illustrations
for Wyoming Wildlife magazine's Wild Country
Dispatch column. More of her work can be seen at
eslickart.com.
Wyoming Wildlife | 47
http://www.eslickart.com
September 2021
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of September 2021
September 2021 - 1
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