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John Budan

Time

I must get outside and dig a hole before the ground freezes. The emaciated bag of bones can hardly eat or walk. She is curled up on my favorite chair, perhaps dreaming of a twenty year career of mole and mice hunting. As the first flakes of snow begin to fall, she feebly lifts her head towards me as if she knows.

end of year
closing the lid
on a shoebox

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About the Author

John Budan is a former merchant seaman and retired R.N. He lives with his wife on a wildlife habitat near Newberg, Oregon.