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Tidbits from My Trip

oddest sign: “No Livestock Released” at a Tennessee rest stop, which was something of a disappointment as I’d have liked to see some cows wandering about oddest sound: in the fancy bathroom of a fancy Charlotte restaurant Elvis singing the “Dixie” portion of An American Trilogy oddest recurring conversation: about the mother, daughter and toddler...

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Oh, Don’t Do That

So I’m walking through the bookstore trying to find a gift for my dad, and I remember the year I talked my sister into giving my grandmother an air conditioning filter for Christmas. I think we were in Sears, and when I saw the air conditioning filter, it reminded me of those collage photo frames (very popular at the time) with lots of little...

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Stages

The oaks and maples and ginkgos make me gape. Add an overcast sky to their new growth, and you’ve got “vegetation.” Unfortunately, I’ll get used to it as the season progresses; thankfully, I’m not there yet. I crane my neck, gazing at the lush canopy. I’ve never had a wreck watching the trees, but I could. * I do not shiver. I hunch. And...

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Just Wondering

* does everyone automatically lift their foot from the accelerate when they see a cop, or is it just me? * have we ever measured a dog’s blood pressure to see if our presence makes her pressure go down? * why did the salesman let me buy a black and blue shirt with a black and blue tie to go with “black” pants that would be revealed to be brown once...

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No One’s Studying You

The cabbie gives me the once over. “You a doctor?” he asks. “I’m a writer,” I say. “I thought you were a doctor,” he insists. “You got the hair, the glasses, the dress.” For the rest of my time in New Orleans, I wear patterned hose and flapper dresses and red pointed cowboy boots and a tight black tee-shirt with my Elvis medal pinned front and...

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Documenting What I Cannot Change or Understand

She rises behind the lectern, carefully taking the steps. Each time, before she reads us our Sunday morning lesson, she flashes a smile our way. Not all lay readers approach their task with such lightness; some bring a decided solemnity to the event. Not her. We’ve walked with her through a recent journey—she’s lost an incredible amount of weight—and...

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Train Triptych Part Last: Without Warning

Without a whistle without a lurch, the train moved out. Stationary at the crossing doing God knows what, it finished, and went along its way unaware that three heartbeats before— one thump thump, two thump thump three thump thump, a boy had been shoving his bicycle between the cars then clambering up and over after it, impatient to get along...

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Ties that Could’ve Been

Riding the train from Memphis watching the tracks go by, I was struck by the railroad ties strewn hither and thither along the way. Old ties, been there a while— it wasn’t like the tie collector was chugging along behind me ready to recover the rotting ties. I couldn’t help but think of my artist friend and the wonderful things she could make...

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