I loved to cycle here, an unremarkable roadside watery micro-universe. Summer filled it with mosquito larva, mesmerizing with their strange, syncopated dances, and flying insects that could walk on water as if it were a soft quilt covered bed. Winter offered tadpoles and tiny freshwater crustaceans. Transporting the microcosm home in a screw-top jar, it would be kept on top of the dresser in my bedroom beside the collection of dolls, gonks, and hair ties. Always I would return it to the pool of origin within days of being collected before the collection could cause injury to the collected.

CJ 2020