In mid-July, my friends and I were drinking lemonade and eating watermelon in the comfort of the shade. We spat the seeds among the weeds. We spat them east and west. I spat one in a pine tree, where it landed in a nest.
And there it lay till late in May, when it sprouted as a vine, and soon there grew a melon in the branches of the pine. A mother bird without a word then settled in the tree and nested on that melon for a week or maybe three.
A day ago, I stood below and heard an awful scratching: the picking and the pecking of that watermelon hatching. Then very soon that afternoon, a feathered head broke free, and now a giant baby bird is sitting in our tree.
He’s green and red from tail to head. His eyes are small and gray. He likely weighs a hundred pounds and will not go away. So be on guard in your backyard when in the shade you sit. Enjoy the watermelon, but be careful where you spit.