The Clootie Tree

there is a sacred spring down the lane yea, truly, though abandoned by utility desecrated by profanity there is a tiny bit of the elysian just down the lane a spring bedight in candles, coins, rags, riches scraps of superstition supplication alms and oblation just down the lane and surreptitiously they come seeking lucidity seeking… Continue reading The Clootie Tree

Eve

Eve woke up with the birds each morning. The piping and burbling of thousands of little brown birds in the reeds, so numerous in kind they’d not even managed to name them all. The deep thrum of the lake birds rising in unison, swirling around Eve’s camp on the edge of the marshland in vast… Continue reading Eve

Errant and Unexpected

The Ameracauna hen has gone walk-about again. Third time this month. I’ve clipped her wings twice since she molted. There are no holes in the slump block wall; I’ve walked it twice this week. And the gate is as enveloped in chicken wire as it can be and still admit sunlight. If her pretty blue… Continue reading Errant and Unexpected

Romulus and Remus

The old river god gently laid the sleeping twin boys on the bank. She watched as he sadly backed away from the shore and melted into his domain. Just before he vanished he looked up and met her eyes, charging her with this task in that one glance. He knew her well. She would never… Continue reading Romulus and Remus

Candlemas Augury

There were no shadows in the winds that day… Mom had diabetes. Turns out intermittent refrigeration wasn’t the only hazard awaiting the insulin-dependent. No, in the end it was a few years of consecutive losses for Eli Lily. Granted, this was largely because of the increased cost of refrigerated shipping, but still. The problem wasn’t… Continue reading Candlemas Augury

Sunny Day Forecast

And he saw his shadow… The barn door knocks against its frame, sending staccato signals into the night. Nobody out there to interpret the message. All these ghost ranchitos. Only me in here, and I know the message: that barn door needs to be rehung. If I can find the hardware. I watch as the… Continue reading Sunny Day Forecast

A History Assignment from the Future

Found in a reverse time capsule dated 1/20/2200: "Our ancestors so much did for us. Things that were expensive and difficult and didn’t even benefit them. They placed hope in the future so that we could have a future. I appreciate everything they did. I wish there were time machines so I could go back and tell them how grateful I am. And to let them know that everything worked out well, that it wasn’t all for nothing. It was all for us."