StateoftheOzarks Weekly

Jabberwock Fog

BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… JABBERWOCK FOG. The February rain came down, washing away the sky, washing down the dark. Fog rose in the hollers and crept up the mountains, cold wet breeze whispering in the oak trees, chill blanket on the rock bluffs dark and black with rain. Lonely piles of snow moldered. The roads slick.…

StateoftheOzarks Weekly

Rules of Travel

BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… RULES OF TRAVEL. Dusk, gray and lavender in the dark, settles over the old neighborhood. At the top of the stairs, the shadows lengthen, then sharpen, then fade. Sister and brother stand on the landing talking. “I think you’ll like this album. I wouldn’t have thought I’d like it. It’s country music,…

StateoftheOzarks Weekly

Red, Orange, Black

BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… RED, ORANGE, BLACK. Night fell out on the big road, a thousand trucks lit like Christmas trees, 80 miles-per-hour stars in the sudden dusk, stars streaming west, following the contours of the land, west wind to a dying sun. This Osage land is where upland plateau — all rocks and hollers and…

StateoftheOzarks Weekly

Broken Sky Promises

BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… BROKEN SKY PROMISES. The lily pond was quiet, save for dark bubbling waters. The piped sounds of classical music had faded, the people mostly gone home. A tree frog peeped from beneath jungly hosta leaves. This strange Eden carved from cornfields and beneath the prairie sky fell into shadow, casualty of another…