text & photography by Patrick La Roque
I’m driving east with the sun in my eyes, squinting through my glasses, blasting the radio at full volume. But I kill the music as I round the corner and hit the dirt road. Certain silences are meant to be heard.
Linda is alone this morning: the kids are off to school, her boyfriend working… It’s just her and the cows, the chickens, the rabbits; just her moving thru liquid beams of streaming light, kicking up dust and dirt in quiet determination.
Later she’ll admit her love of farm life, of the animals she cares for and depends on. The thrill of the market, the obvious pride in a hard, controlled freedom. She’ll tell me how she lost her husband. How she found someone new.
Later, as we chat over a cup of coffee…
Long after the day’s begun.
