Melting Snow

Creation Saturday: Saguaro Sentinels and The Box

Saturday, June 4, 2016

Saguaro Sentinels

Dawn awakens the glint of dew
on outstretched arms:
silent witnesses
to the ever changing panorama of education;
saguaro sentinels wave adieu
to departing graduates.

Notes about this poem: The original title for this poem was Community College of Southern Nevada, Henderson Campus. I recently rediscovered this poem when cleaning out a desk drawer. I changed the name because I am considering using the setting in one of the 444 stories I'm writing this year. The setting will be a college or school campus, but I'm not sure whether it will be in Las Vegas or Henderson.

The "Blogging Circle of Friends "  prompt for Day 1298

THE BOX

You have poured your morning coffee and you open your front door to enjoy the day and watch the sun rise—BUT—on your front porch is a hugh box moving back and forth and makin strange noises. You move closer and it lets out a hugh scream. What is in it and what does it do?

The Box

I stood with the door open, coffee cup in my right hand and staring down at the huge box on my front porch. It was too early for UPS or any other delivery service to be delivering packages and I know the box wasn't there last night. I sigh, then I turn east towards Sunrise Mountain. I had planned to sit on the top step of my porch and watch the sunrise. Obviously God, fate, or some neighbor, who was hidden behind a tree or bush with a video camera, had other plans.

As I glared at the box, it began moving back and forth while making weird and strange noises. After about five minutes a loud, blood freezing scream emitted from the box. I had no other choice but to scoot the box in the house before the neighbors called the police. I didn't need to deal with Las Vegas' finest this early in the morning. I placed my coffee mug carefully on the parch and then begin scooting the box into the house.

For a huge box that moved, it was surprisingly light and easy to maneuver through my front door. I pushed it into my living room directly in front of my picture window, retrieved my quickly cooling coffee, and then locked the door. If one of my neighbors was filming this I was determined to make them work for the viral video I expected them to post on either Facebook or YouTube. If the person couldn't get into my house then he/she/it would have to video the opening of the box through the window. This meant that that individual had to get closer to the window, which would give me a chance to figure out who was playing April Fool's Day pranks in early June.

I took a sip of coffee, place my mug on the coffee table, and opened the box. The creature in the box looked like a large jackrabbit (which isn't a rabbit at all but a hare) with antelope-like horns growing out of its head slightly in front of its long ears. I knew what the creature was because I had research this mythological beast for a short story I was writing. I was looking at a living, breathing jackalope. One of the mysterious cryptozoological creatures, which along with Sasquatch and chupacabra, that are supposed to lurk in the deserts, forest, mountains, and grasslands of the Americas.

I looked out the window to see if someone was sneaking up on my house with a video camera. The only thing I saw was the paper boy delivering the morning Review Journal. I closed the curtains, sit down on the couch, and picked up my cold coffee. I took a couple of sips, as I watched the creature hope onto the coffee table and then onto my couch. I guess the poor little thing was frightened because it hoped onto my lap and snuggled. For some reason animals seem to find me comforting. I suppose it could be worse considering the reputation jackalopes have for being warrior rabbits.

I now have a bit of a problem. I have to decide whether to keep the jackalope as a companion (jackalopes are too intelligent to be considered pets) or call Area 51. If I call Area 51 then some military lab coat will want to dissect the poor little thing. If I keep it then I have to figure out what it eats. In all the research I did, I don't remember reading what jackalopes eat. I did read that they could mimic human voices, which explains the scream.