Usually by August, the grass is dead, baked dry by the heat of the summer. Once, a dozen or more years ago, the summer had been so hot and dry that the only green grass anywhere was a narrow band along the low side of the road, where the runoff from scant showers was just enough for ribbon of grass to turn green.

But in years when the rains are later than normal, the grasses linger on, and August is uncharacteristically green. This was one of those years, and this tiny cross was almost obscured by late-season grasses.

This wasn’t my first visit to this cemetery; it is one of my favorites, and has been featured here on the blog a few times. There’s the Cemetery Chair, and Why Travel the Stars, both from One Day | One Image. And, on a previous blog, you can see some star trails above an angel and a painted concrete cross.

On this visit, I found out that the rodeo arena is next to the cemetery. There was plenty going on at the arena, and the sound system was playing lots of country music. It was annoying at first – who wants to hear music at a cemetery? – but I got used to it, I guess; it just became part of the background sounds. Like birds. And trains.

Marathon, Texas
photographed 8.17.2013