BEEN THINKING ABOUT… THE PEAR TREE. The pear tree in the yard has leafed, shade dappled beneath an increasingly hot sun. Mist rose in the holler last night, turning the sunset red. Red sky in morning, sailors take warning. The grass beneath the pear is already thick and raucous, overgrown where the lawn had once…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… COLD SPRING DAYS. Cold spring days are special things. Too soon the air will be hot and ragged as summertime seems to arrive earlier each year and so I remain thankful for the chill of early spring. There is subtle beauty in the overcast, the clouds changing, gray and severe, the hanging-on…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… THE DIVINE HAG. The Ozarks are beautiful in springtime, but springtime is not yet here. I stand atop my own meadow mountain, wind gusts hitting something like 50 miles an hour, and squint into the gale, into the dust, briefly losing my footing and catching myself from falling as the wind intensifies.…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… THE BITTER MARCH WIND. The bitter March wind stirs the red oak leaves on the hillside, leaf litter heavy in the late afternoon. The sky has cleared, temperature dropping quickly. Thankfully, the cab of my F-150 is warm as I navigate the going-home traffic. I turn the wheel north, north through the…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… UNDERWORLD GAINS. It’s late. I’m tired. I’m hungry. At least the gym is playing Hozier on the speakers. I shrug. It is the end of the month, the last chance for any personal records in February. I’m already sore. The six plates of iron loaded on the bar are not going anywhere.…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… THE TOWN WITH MANY DOORS. The name of the town is not important. There are too many, too many small towns, too many names gone, too many memories lost in the cold waters of time. The fact that it was once my town is not important either, only that those cold, lost…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… ROSES IN A DARK ROOM. A dark bedroom, a single light. The lamp was a strange thing, heavily weighted, long, spindly neck, rough black charcoal-like texture of hood and base, the lamp of a mid-century engineer with a black briefcase and shoes buffed until persistently reflective. But engineering was a world away,…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… CAKE, ICE, FOG. It was so foggy the black night I drove home across bleak Illinois prairies and into dark Illinois woods. The thick fog obscured red tail lights, white snow-packed ice, even stop signs. West central Illinois is a different sort of place, a place where the folklore of a lost…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… MOLLY KATHLEEN. The dogs in the barn barked that bright morning as I was sitting at the dining room table, open notebook before me, scholastic workbooks stacked to my right. My mom threw dishtowel over shoulder and walked to the front room windows, frowning. Someone was walking up the driveway. I was…
BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… BLACK PHILLIP. In the bleak conclusion of Robert Eggers’ film The Witch, the big black billy goat fatally gores the ever-angry Puritan father. The goat then transforms into the devil, seducing teenage daughter Thomasin and leading her into the forest to become a witch. I don’t feel bad about spoiling the ending.…