Spring
Spring has stumbled onto the farm like a loud drunk into a hospital waiting room. It doesn’t care that we’re pensive, that we’re taut against our own hopes, almost afraid […]
Category Archives: north-america
An Unreasonable Bounty
My week has been full of “shoulds.” I should write about John Prine. I should write about coronavirus. I should write about the tribulations of my particular family’s attempt to […]
Sheltering in Place
Outside my window, traces of Mt. Townsend are gleaming with first light amid folds of the blanketing clouds to the south. It’s like the mountain would rather sleep in, but […]
Memento Mori
I keep trying to figure out how to write about life anymore. Out here on the farm, it’s a little too normal. Yes, pandemic is in every headline, pictures of […]
Southbound, er, Northbound again
There’s always a challenge with travel writing, where you have to shirk one tenet of the genre – accuracy in tense – to convey accuracy in emotion. I want to […]
Traveling Again
“Have I got everything, am I ready to go?
Is it gonna be great, is it gonna be the best time,
Or am I just saying so?
Am I ready to go?
What do I hear when I say I hear the call of the road?”
-Dar Williams, Traveling Again
New Story: Smoke
“Hey — can I ask you for some advice?” The girl stepped out into the streetlight toward me and took a made-for-TV drag off her cigarette. She’d been nearly camouflaged against the […]
Blueberry Muffins and Civil Disobedience
I don’t recall if I’ve written about this before, but one of my earliest coherent memories is one of civil disobedience. My sister Joanne and I are riding in the […]
Settling In
I’m sitting in the departures lounge at SeaTac, listening to the woman seated next to me loudly complain at her phone about the price of drinks in the airport bar. […]
Out of My Comfort Zone
I’d already finished my shower and gotten dressed by the time my alarm went off at 5:30. Truth is, I’d been awake for a while, nursing that lump of dread […]
