Saturday, April 2, 2005

The poop marshes

   Remember that scene in The Two Towers where Gollum is leading Frodo and Sam through the dead marshes, and they can see faces under that water? The other day I was walking the dog over at the local farm property everyone uses as an off-leash dog park, and I was reminded of Frodo looking down at those faces just below the surface. 
   The snow had melted from about half of the field. The other half, where most people had walked all winter, was a large expanse of hard packed ice about four inches thick. Every four or five feet was a small circular pot hole melted in the surface of the ice with a dog turd in it, covered with water. These were not new dog turds, rather they had been preserved under the ice for the entire winter. As we walked farther, and the ice pot holes increased in frequency, it became difficult to pick a safe path through them. One had to carefully avoid them lest they attach themselves to one's boot in a kind of attack of the undead poop. I could only pray that if I slipped, and fell into the morass of fecundity, my dog would be able to pull me out, mumbling something like, "don't follow the smells!"
 
   Eliot could have written, "April is the cruelest month, breeding dog turds from the dead ground."

   Then again, maybe he couldn't.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Which is why I do not have a dog.  The ferret has a litter box, the hamster pushes his little turd in a corner... and the hermit crabs, well, I don't know what they do.... I just know I don't have to worry about stepping in it.  All I have to worry about is the occasional unflushed toilet.
You realize of course that you are completely blowing any chance of ever being featured on the Editors Pick....

Anonymous said...

Thanks Paul.

That's a good laugh at quarter past 8 in the morning.  Reminded me of the big melt we had here a couple weeks ago.  I looked out my kitchen window at the state of the back patio and realised it was time to haul out the shovel and the garden hose.

Simon

Anonymous said...

LOL Oh My. This world we live in, danger can be found just about anywhere! Of course it takes someone with writing talent to retell such a scene in grand manner.
Rebecca

Anonymous said...

ROFL... I'm just picturing you trying to negotiate this 'landmine' filled area to safety! We don't have that problem here. I always take one of the baggies (or a paper towel if I'm out) and get Morgan's poo on an 'as you go' basis and dispose of it... One of the caveats of living around a lot of people....
http://journals.aol.com/astaryth/AdventuresofanEclecticMind

Anonymous said...

Funny, dude.

Caleb

Anonymous said...

what a lovely mental image. Thaaaaaaaank you, Paul.  *Looks at Bijou and Bon Jovi with a funny look*...shall we poop scoop later today, my doggies?

<3 Rachel

Anonymous said...

I thought that was a rather frightening scene in The Two Towers imagery-wise, but it pales in comparison to the fear that runs through me when thinking about the poop marshes LOL!!

Anonymous said...

This was hilarious.  Reminded me of our days of living in the midwest with two dogs in a small yard.  As the winter snows melted, the back yard would become more and more brown, until it was nearly a solid sheet of dog poop.  NOT a pretty picture....  Lisa  :-]