The Frog Chronicles

Life Skills

I can work a shovel pretty well, so that the guy working the backhoe doesn’t slice into any underground electric or gas cables.

I can take you to a place on a mountain where the Perseid Meteors will leave you speechless. I can also kiss you on the back of the neck so softly that you forget the stars falling over your head.

I can drive a tractor and help make hay in early June.

I can tune the SU carburettors on an old Austin-Healy Sprite, and then make it dance around a race track.

I can drive a forklift, and fill a tractor-trailer with enough food to supply most of the K&W Cafeterias in Kannapolis NC.

I can also leave an important order off that truck, and then drive south and hand deliver it in the morning. Even after working all night.

I can convince you to lift your skirt and make love to me on porch swing when we are both 22 and drunk on wine.

I can shoot a shotgun with a bit of skill, and cast an entire flyline at a tailing permit that you can barely see. I can pick morels and prepare them with a trout we just caught with our bare hands.

I can write, and I can tell you stories, at least a little bit. I can convince you to let me take pictures that will make you blush the next day. You’ll still smile when you see them, though.

I can hold your hand on the rough days. I can be a selfish prick sometimes, too.

I can do lots of things. I really can. Given the chance, anyway.