Tenderness, Comedy, Joy!

Stopped at a traffic light on a flat day, I’ve got the windows rolled all the way down.  It’s sunny, and the air; hot, dry and saturated with cottonwood resin and dusty sage punches through the car.  Worn out strip mall buildings and power lines frame the road.  On the sidewalk parallel to me, a woman ambles in the shade of a few towering cottonwoods, branches mingling with power lines.  A heavy-looking canvas shopping bag drags her gait just off-center.  I’m idly watching when she pauses.  At her feet is a dead gray squirrel…one that you can tell just by looking lacks the crispiness of a veteran dead thing, but probably isn’t still pliable either.  The woman pulls out a magazine, slides it under the stiff little corpse, lifts carefully, and places both magazine gurney and squirrel into her canvas grocery bag.