The river has risen to the tops of its banks. I can see the river clearly from my desk. The island in the middle of the river, usually almost covered with Bird’s cattle, is showing patches of gathering water. The soft steady downpour is not letting up. Some cattle are marooned on the highest part of the island. They know, in the worst of times, the safest level above rising water, and stand and wait, stand and wait, heads down. The saturated grass, boggy, soggy, is not necessarily disturbed. The cattle have been here before, calmly ruminating and then, necessarily…