August 2010
3 posts
1 tag
Twenty-Six
Theodore set out from his house, not knowing when he would see home again, but happy at the thought of what might lay beyond the river. He walked and wondered at the sunrise in front of him. It cast a bright green glow over the sides of the gravel road, illuminating each blade of grass from behind. This, he thought, was the color God intended when he made Green.
Over the next hill, Theodore...
2 tags
Twenty-Five
Ann walked down the stairs and onto the platform just in time to see her train depart. Another would arrive in 9 minutes, the sign read. She looked at her watch, and then away, briefly, to some people on the opposite side, also waiting, and having an obviously more enjoyable time of it than she was.
She checked her watch again… 8 minutes, 45 seconds. The time remaining would slow...
4 tags
Twenty-Four
Jane and John walked silently by the lake. It was a warm day outside, and light from the sunset was beginning to turn orange-red and flow over onto the ground below. A bluebird passed gracefully, flying from it’s perch in an onlooking green tree. They passed a group of happy children sprinting and spinning in circles, and couldn’t help but laugh with them. For a moment, their cloudy...
July 2010
3 posts
6 tags
Twenty-Three
I am jostled from sleep and spread thin, as I am lifted to the edge of a deep well. I am trapped, secured, immobile.
All at once a flash of light and the cool, open air wrap around me. The sky spans boundlessly above in all directions. I am twisted and flipped, disoriented, and then jarred to a halt, suspended in mid-air, transparent and vulnerable.
An immeasurable blast of heat presses...
4 tags
Twenty-Two
It was the 17th hour of the trip, and finally the mountains were appearing one by one. They crept up silently when least expected, growing in number and size. They slowly crowded around, closing the aperture to the sky, whose color deepened to a dark blue, true and bold, adding authenticity to awe as the first snowy peaks appeared. The tallest ones were still far away, but just within eyesight...
4 tags
Twenty-One
The air was still warm and humid, although the sun had set an hour earlier. I had just sat down on the grass out of sheer boredom when Clara approached and held out a candle, already lit. It was the night of The Walk.
It was traditional for the whole town to carry candles through the meadow on the first weekend of July. Warsham was full of annual traditions like this, which almost everyone...
June 2010
5 posts
5 tags
Twenty
She neglected the letter opener and rushed to unseal the envelope, tearing the short edge off anxiously. Her eyes scanned quickly for the words she hoped to read. At first run-through, “accepted” was nowhere to be found.
Surely it’s there. She just missed it, right? A second glance at the first paragraph coldly confirmed her fears. This was a rejection notice, not a letter...
7 tags
Nineteen
Leland trembled as he untied his boots and pried them off. Carefully placing his socks and shirt inside, he walked toward the water and stopped, toes well out of reach of the waves’ gentle lapping. He noted how unpredictably they approached and retreated, marking the heartbeat of the ocean.
Astonishing, that a man can go 71 years on Earth without swimming a single stroke. The years...
3 tags
Eighteen
Mark and Jenn parked the car and dragged their tired feet up to the next plot on the list. “So, what do you think of this one?” she asked.
“Looks just fine,” he mused. “Just as good as the one you liked earlier, I think, if not better for the natural runoff on the south over there.”
“Honestly, they’re all starting to look the same to me…...
3 tags
Seventeen
Matt braced himself under the tall, cool grass and tried not to breathe. His thoughts were racing for a plan, a distraction, anything.
The clouds just stared back. None of the endings his vivid imagination conjured were happy. If the guys with guns didn’t see him hiding feebly, he might be able to wait them out. If they did, however…
He heard the footsteps of two men now,...
7 tags
Sixteen
It’s sad, what’s happened. Everyone used to love hearing the reverend preach. He wasn’t so misunderstood then. I watched for years as all his old friends left, a few at a time. Sure, new people would arrive every now and then, but as the numbers dwindled they wouldn’t stick around as long. It’s a shame that there’s hardly no one who’ll give you a chance...
May 2010
4 posts
4 tags
Fifteen
So, this is the place?
Yep.
How do you know?
Because it looks nothing like what I imagined.
And, do we know someone here?
Yes, the caretaker… Don’t you remember?
Not really. It was so vague. I wasn’t really following, but I thought you were, so I didn’t bother to ask questions… What was it he actually said again?
He said we’d be able to find...
7 tags
Fourteen
Wilson.
6 tags
Thirteen
The sky lit up like a bomb had just gone off, the frames slowing to a eerie pace as we watched quietly, the breaths catching every now and then in our lungs. It was the end of a revolution.
7 tags
Twelve
Before we were born, God gently told us the truth. Understanding is something that stops when our bodies bruise.
All this to say, our future is a blank page. We’ll drag our pens into these parallel lines to record and to articulate everything we find. As decades unlace, we’ll pause and carefully trace. Our shadows are puddles of ink that our memory saves.
Layer by layer, the...
April 2010
4 posts
1 tag
Eleven
If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.
11 tags
Ten
Cade’s Cove is one of the earliest settlements of European-descent Americans in the Appalachian Mountains, located in eastern Tennessee, just outside of Maryville. Interestingly, the first couple settling there did not first gain a treaty with the Native Americans. Instead, they just moved in and hoped for the best. As it turned out, the friendly Cherokees in the valley helped them...
6 tags
Nine
The summer sun set, and left a faint trace of light behind for a few moments. We knew it was time. We had heard the rumors and felt the anxiety. A wind carried the sound through our midst, rustling us up in anticipation. The collective sway now fully synchronizing us with the heartbeat of something much greater than we were as individuals. The last fleeting rays lit our faces with the...
5 tags
Eight
Circles and squares, angles and curves, far as the eye can see. The great quilt of the midwest fades into the distance.
A patchwork of green and gold, red and brown, hemmed by creeks, trees, dirt roads, and wire fences, spread as a blanket on the great plain. This is where we find the origin of farm roads, and farm hands, too. Boys and girls grown from seedlings to appreciate a day’s...
March 2010
5 posts
7 tags
Seven
The cloud broke from its daily pilgrimage, each droplet desiring some new light to reflect. A great number of these fell to the ground and pooled in a singular happy location, yet without the ability to sate their longing in spite of such a fortunate convergence. Then, with the anticipation of a forewarned surprise, their opportunity arose. A few beads had learned a transcendent, marked skill...
4 tags
Six
Sunset on my parents’ land is a thing of wonder. A unique work of art is created each evening, especially during the fall and spring months. The whole sky in Texas seems to lend itself to this process. Whoever’s behind this knows how to inspire me.
6 tags
Five
The Earth gasped and the sky darkened. Those far from the center felt tremors as a veil covered the sun. We felt his thirst and the ache of a broken heart as the final matters were tended. “Brother, this is your mother; woman, this your son.” The darkness came suddenly and enveloped us all. “Why have you forsaken me?” It was the end, but also a beginning of a new nature....
3 tags
Four
Sometimes our fireplace allows the subtle scent of woodsmoke to permeate the living room. It happens especially when there’s a light rain or heavy wind outside.
The chimney remembers the fires we’ve built, and on such evenings, brings them to our attention with a justifiable ‘ahem’.
So we put candles in there to keep the smell out. Even with just one lit, it works,...
10 tags
Three
Andy Gullahorn — “Someone to You” »
Oh you are a rock sticking out of the sand
That gets covered up when the high tide rolls in
All else washes away but the stone never moves
I could be nobody as long as I’m someone to you
February 2010
2 posts
6 tags
Two
The elderly tree creaked and moaned in the damp wind, then gave up without a fight. For its height, lessened in recent days by the death of the highest branches, there was only one direction it could possibly fall without risking damage to the roof or neighbor’s property. Remarkably, it fell just so, as if not wishing to cause a loss to anything but itself. It rather broke upon the ground...
3 tags
One
Snow falls innumerable and strong, yet characteristically shy, bringing a smile across my lawn and countenance. It covers the soil of my home, leaves no trace of the weeds below, blanketing us in pure, white innocence. We are elevated to heaven, rested in a cloud unashamed to welcome us home. It slowly floods each blade and speck, embraced now in a frozen envelope. The letter from an old friend...