“A Woman, Mowing the Grass”

On a deep-green April afternoon, Oriental poppies at the height of their orange perfection, my daughter draws with chalk on the driveway while I begin mowing the last section of lawn. I turn a wide arc around the maple tree, the mower’s metronome thrum silencing the paws of the neighbor’s dog. She races to the curve of my calf and sinks in her teeth.I yelp and kick away the yellow lab. Her owner rushes across the cul-de-sac and grabs her collar, hauling her back and apologizing. “But, you know,” he says, the dog whimpering at his tight hold, “this wouldn’t […]