That shadow, I remember it.
Flew over the hills like — what was that horse?
Secretariat.
That’s the one.
All of us filled with oohs, aahs.
Yawns, too.
It was early, wasn’t it.
Even for a school night.
Tuesday. I think it was a Tuesday.
English teacher made us write poetry.
Mine sucked.
Mine too. I rhymed “penumbra” with “slumbah.”
Got a picture. Don’t [...]

Kaiser Wilhelm stood at the base of the stairs. “This fuss. It was about this, yes?”
His clerk nodded. He brushed a bit of rabbit fur off his sleeve and made for the first step. The Kaiser held him back.
“No, no,” he whispered. “I want to gaze at it a while. [...]

There is a Santa troll.
What he’s doing out and about in July is anyone’s guess.
(I have a hunch he’s here to help me with a few housekeeping duties. Do you think trolls know how to make coffee? Tinker with Wordpress templates? Cook eggs? Stop time? I’ve heard rumors…)

When you first see the harbingers of the candidate, you have trouble counting how many eyes they have. Maybe it’s the rain, slick, too shimmery, or maybe it’s how tightly they move in formation, or how they blink in unison at every corner.
Seven, you think it is. Red, blue, two orange, two a [...]

I had to look twice. Photo so beat up, so grainy, you’d think it was from Krakatoa, not St. Helens.
We missed the big one. Our whole class was down in desert country, Malheur, bird watching. I remember the teachers filing into the cavern where we’d gathered for lunch. I remember the [...]

They’re all trying to make deals with the devil. Sometimes the light hits just right, and those chords ring out, and you have to wonder: successful, yes? Oh, hell yes. And you say, thank you, Mr. Devil, for being such a damn good dealmaker, and then you kick back and enjoy the [...]

I’m feeling it — weathered, that is — already.
The project: sort, scan, blog old photos.
But, sadly, far far too many of my photos from this early era are failed experiments in the darkroom, photos damaged by the ravages of a leaky basement, and photos discovered only in contact sheet form. I have many [...]

A block away from the theater building at Portland State, in a space we all shared. Stop. Talk. Listen. Oh, the stories.

A flower blooms for each one she’s left behind. She’s lost track now. The centuries shamble by. The garden riots. Foxglove and nightshade cry for attention, but always, always the bleeding heart wins.

When the words don’t flow, imagine only that the words can’t flow, that restraints contain you from all sides, that you’ve been denied expression. Jaws held shut. And one little thing screams to get out. A simple idea, as simple as reaching up to a clothesline and hanging a blouse in [...]