Wallace Stegner in Wolf Willow, on watching flies stuck to fly paper as a kid:
Once I caught my mother watching me, and together, for a while, we stared at the sheet of gummed paper loud with the buzzing of flies whose feet were caught but whose wings were still free. We watched a few get their wings caught too, so they could only slide and crawl. My mother’s lips drew up as if she tasted something nasty. “What’s the matter, sorry for the old flies?” I said. “It’s a parable,” she said, and crumpled the sheet up and stuck it in the sheep-wagon stove we used in chilly weather.
More quotes from Wolf Willow, which is one of the best books I’ve read recently:
A Child’s Sight | Red River Carts | Canadian Cowboys | The Praise of Women | Loss of Wilderness
Nehaveigur 