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-:: ::-
†: :†
.........: ............ † † ............ :.........
........:- †: :† -:........
.......:-† -:: ::- †-:.......
......:-†† ---- ††-:......
.....:-††§ §††-:.....
....:-††§# The River That'S Our River Makes A #§††-:....
...:-††§#@ Large Bend Like A Scooping Hand And A @#§††-:...
..:-††§#@# Decent Days Travel North From That #@#§††-:..
.:-††§#@## Stands Our House In The Middle Of A ##@#§††-:.
..:-††§#@# Forgotten Apple Orchard. Our House Is #@#§††-:..
...:-††§#@ Built Of Dark Clay And Abandoned By A @#§††-:...
....:-††§# Stranger. The Window Has No Glass But #§††-:....
.....:-††§ Instead Steel Bars To Keep The Animals §††-:.....
......:-†† Out. ††-:......
.......:-† †-:.......
........:- Around The House Is A Thick, Thick -:........
.........: Brush Of Ferns And Bushes. There Live :.........
.......... The Animals That We Fight To Keep Away, ..........
.........: For They Speak To Us To Join Them In :.........
........:- The Luscious Caves Below Ground. They -:........
.......:-† Mean No Harm But It Is Not In Our Best †-:.......
......:-†† Interest To Do So. There Is Important ††-:......
.....:-††§ Work That Needs To Be Done, And It Cant §††-:.....
....:-††§# Be Done By Animals. (Father Says This.) #§††-:....
...:-††§#@ @#§††-:...
..:-††§#@# Every Morning Our Father Clears The #@#§††-:..
.:-††§#@## Ferns And Uproots The Bushes Only For ##@#§††-:.
..:-††§#@# Them To Grow Back Each Night. Their #@#§††-:..
...:-††§#@ Leaves Are Teal, White And Yellow, Some @#§††-:...
....:-††§# Even The Color Of Wine. They Have Lilac #§††-:....
.....:-††§ Flowers And In The Morning They Are Wet §††-:.....
......:-†† With Dew. ††-:......
.......:-† †-:.......
........:- Father Is Away During The Day Doing -:........
.........: Important Things Elsewhere. He Is Weary :.........
.......... When He Returns Home, Each Day More So ..........
.........: Than The Next. We Learn To Cook For Him :.........
........:- So That He Does Not Have To. We Tend To -:........
.......:-† His Clothes. †-:.......
......:-†† ††-:......
.....:-††§ Suddenly The Dense Bushwork Is Mirrored §††-:.....
....:-††§# Inside. Stems And Leaves Appear Close #§††-:....
...:-††§#@ To The Walls And Far From The Light. We @#§††-:...
..:-††§#@# Are Glad, For The Flowers Are Beautiful #@#§††-:..
.:-††§#@## And Smell Good, And There Is Little ##@#§††-:.
..:-††§#@# Decoration In Our House. But When #@#§††-:..
...:-††§#@ Father Comes Home He Is Angry And Cuts @#§††-:...
....:-††§# Them All Down In A Frenzy. We Are #§††-:....
.....:-††§ Scared Of Him Then. §††-:.....
......:-†† ††-:......
.......:-† We Are Then Tasked With Removing Any †-:.......
........:- Indoor Plant We See. But They Are So -:........
.........: Beautiful! We Wait Just Until Father :.........
.......... Comes Home And Until Then We Enjoy ..........
.........: Them. Sometimes An Animal Will Sneak In :.........
........:- But We Always Shoo Them Out. With Fresh -:........
.......:-† Cut Flowers Thrown Right Outside The †-:.......
......:-†† House He Suspects And Resents Our ††-:......
.....:-††§ Inaction. But He Doesn'T Have The §††-:.....
....:-††§# Energy To Scold Us. He Weakens Quickly. #§††-:....
...:-††§#@ It Is Not Long Before He Is Still Tired @#§††-:...
..:-††§#@# Even In The Morning And Must #@#§††-:..
.:-††§#@## Reluctantly Leave The Outdoor Weed ##@#§††-:.
..:-††§#@# Cutting To Us As Well, Untrusting That #@#§††-:..
...:-††§#@ We Will Carry It Out. @#§††-:...
....:-††§# #§††-:....
.....:-††§ Now He Leaves As Soon As He'S Awake And §††-:.....
......:-†† Falls Asleep As Soon As He Returns. We ††-:......
.......:-† Are Left To Care For Us And The House †-:.......
........:- And The Orchard. But It Is Hard And We -:........
.........: Are Distracted. We Are Not As :.........
.......... Persistent As Father And Quickly Fall ..........
.........: Behind In Our Duties. :.........
........:- -:........
.......:-† †-:.......
......:-†† ††-:......
.....:-††§ §††-:.....
....:-††§# #§††-:....