The Sprinkler

I put a timer on the hose. That's the whole thing. That's the whole project. The lawn waters itself now, and I have spent the last four weeks in a relationship with that timer that I would not describe to a professional.

See, the timer is good. I didn't put it in to be in charge. I put it in so I wouldn't be in charge. That's what it is. That's the deal. And a deal is a deal.

But it runs at seven in the morning, and seven is a time. And when you're at the kitchen window at seven and something in your yard is on, you go look. You have to go look. This is not a theory.

So now I'm outside, in one sock, watching a machine do a thing I built a machine to do, so I don't have to watch.

Last week I turned it off. And it wasn't on the next day. And I stood in the yard for twenty minutes, and I turned it back on, and the grass is fine, and I'm not proud of this, but the grass is fine.

There's a schedule in my phone now. For the lawn. That has a schedule. That's me, and that's the lawn, and I don't make the rules, the water does.