THE SHRILL TRILL OF TREE FROGS cut through the woods along the river. Yet, the frogs remained unseen, despite their overwhelmingly loud voices seemingly screaming for attention. Nature is odd like that sometimes. Raucous, but stealthy enough to remain hidden.
Yet, on this walk along the Cannon River near Two Rivers Park in Faribault, not all creatures stayed unseen by me. A mallard drake swam in the river, shimmering iridescent neck and head contrasting sharply with water muddied by recent heavy rains.
Through a curtain of leaves, I spotted a second drake settled on a fallen limb. Sometimes you have to look closely to notice nature in a natural landscape.
I doubt the two youth pedaling the bike trail across the river bridge, along the river, around the bend beside the woods, noticed.
They likely noticed the parked boxcars, though, painted with graffiti. Bold. Vivid. Graphics seemingly screaming for attention. Messages undecipherable to me. Street art. Public art. Boxcar art. Perhaps even some gang graffiti.
Nature paints her own art in reflections and ripples upon water’s surface, in a canopy of trees draping a trail, in a clump of wildflowers or weeds, depending on perspective.
I noticed all of this and a juvenile bunny hunkered at woods’ edge, attempting to appear unseen in a statue still pose. I crept nearer and nearer, clicking my camera until the rabbit eventually decided inaction was likely not the safest option. I posed no threat. But a young creature of the wild doesn’t understand that.
And so this is what I noticed, along the river. Floral and fauna. Noise of tree frog and nearby traffic. Scared rabbit. Duck upon muddy waters. Paint upon boxcars. Me, trying to find my place in the all of it, here beside the river.
© Copyright 2024 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
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