Snips rusty fence wire
to set a gate; a tiny parkland in
deep brush -- this dry wash
silent in summer; in winter roaring
The
gate provides an entryway from the poultry pasture, allowing access to
the hut should anything happen to the main bridge, which crosses the
creek elsewhere, nearer the homestead. Three bridges have been washed
away by floods in times past. It is a very dynamic landscape.
Though
the river's current never fails, the water passing, moment by moment,
is never the same. Where the current pools, bubbles form on the surface,
bursting and disappearing as others rise to replace them, none lasting
long. In this world, people and their dwelling places are like that,
always changing.
-- Chomei, Hojoki