test sirens

I took a walk to the paved forest path.
I listened to the podcast, to the idea of breathlaughter.
I walked along the road, hugging the road, in and out of the sunlight.
I entered into the forest, pulled out my headphones so I could really listen.I curved around along with the road, looking for mugwort, but finding none of what I’m used to in New York.
Time to learn.

As I was finishing the forest loop, as I was putting my headphones back in to listen to the rest of the podcast, as the host of the interview said the word pause, that’s when the emergency test siren blared to life. I’d never knew where this sound was coming from, but now, I could see it with my own eyes. I plugged my ears hard, pushing in as far as I could until I could hear less of the emergency. Twice the sirens turned, panning in a circle from their multi-storied height.

At bedtime, I stumble through complicated questions around the impending holiday tomorrow, asking them what they remembered about Juneteenth. One recalled the words Emancipation Proclamation, said them twice like a tongue twister and remembered what they meant. We touched briefly on why people might not feel like the 4th of July is for them — then jumped around to why people in our life celebrate different holidays, who gets more gifts, was that really Jesus’s birthday?!, etc. One was almost asleep by this point, her body exhausted from the exercise missing from our lives since March.

It was late. We will talk more tomorrow.