Love of the Wild

A young man who has spent nineteen years living on the edge of the forest watches the autumn light filter through moss‑draped trees, his senses tuned to every rustle and flicker of animal life. He knows the language of squirrels, the routes of the red‑capped hunters and the habits of his loyal Irish setter, Joe, as if they were old friends. When a glossy black squirrel becomes his reluctant prize, the encounter turns into a quiet, tense moment that reveals his deep‑seated resentment toward the clamor of the new schoolhouse rising on the hill.

That brief struggle forces him to confront a harsher truth: the wilderness he cherishes is already being fenced off and labeled by civilization. His thoughts wander between protecting the fragile creatures and the inevitable march of progress that threatens the wild he loves. Listeners are drawn into his inner conflict, feeling the pull of the untamed forest and the looming sound of change.