One word can bring you round/Changes

What I had intended to post today needs more work, so here's this instead:


WOMAN
And this made national news. How odd.

MAN
Why not? I was in, what, Nebraska? –someplace, in February, and they had on the news about Punxatawney…whatsis name?

WOMAN
Phil. Punxatawney Phil. But isn’t he just the local…

MAN
That’s what I thought, too, just the local gopher…

WOMAN
Groundhog.

MAN
Right. Which is different from a woodchuck how, Miss Zoologist?

WOMAN
It’s not. Woodchuck, groundhog, same thing.

MAN
So, I didn’t mean gopher, I meant groundhog.

WOMAN
No, actually, gopher’s right, too. But there’s no Gopher Day, so I said “groundhog” automatically. Sorry. Reflexive.

(A pause.)

Did Phil see his shadow? I don’t remember.

(Excerpted from View Thru Quarter Pane, Part I: Bringing Spring To Hinckley)

I saw one foraging for goodies by the side of the highway this morning. Whatever you call it.

My work, by the way, is not to be confused with that of Cybele May, who is on the opposite coast. See also her blog.