The Big Picture

From the window of a moving train you can see only the big picture. Clouds and a wall of green move past like a dream that vanishes when you wake. To focus on one tree or one house or cloud makes your eyes cross with a feeling of hurtling into space from the broken safety harness of a runaway roller coaster, causing the hours old coffee in your stomach to rise thickly into your throat. Continue reading The Big Picture

Driving To New Mexico, 1973

Stuckeys signs rise into the sky like lamp posts lighting the way from rest stop to bathroom break to late night motels with swimming pools (yay!) In between the miles I read every passing billboard – especially the ones showing sophisticated grown ups holding cocktails and cigarettes (temptation!) White and yellow stripes disappear behind us in the endless flatlands of Texas dotted with pumping rigs like giant grasshoppers bolted in the earth. The first glimpse of purple mountain slopes rise on the horizon like a wonderous mirage after the boredom of dusty plains. Green valleys and twisty roads meander through … Continue reading Driving To New Mexico, 1973

Summer of Mary

You taught me how to shave my legs, the downy almost invisible blonde strands of silk falling to the razors swath, the last vestige of a child’s body helpless against the vanity of a teenagers critical eye. But I loved you, that summer, loved your shiny pageboy flip, your tweezed eyebrows and ice pale lips. You were sophisticated in a way I didn’t understand but coveted. Shaving my legs was only the beginning. Continue reading Summer of Mary