Diversion

10 the minnesota review Pat Gray Diversion Rifles echo from our pond. Three men in jeans aim at the wedge-shaped heads of turtles, poking up from the water for flies. Each singing shot dulls the ear, until grasshoppers fiddle their legs and the low hum of insects returns. As I approach, the men make for their car, scramble inside, lurch away. From the bank, the pond looks peaceful— sleepy in the heat. An old turtle stumbles upward on the bank so clumsily, I watch. He turns a wrinkled head toward me, but cannot see— has no eye. ...