the half-life of whatever may come

I used to paint.

Everyone had heard about maps on rocks. They made me famous when I was twenty years old and made Summer, the gallery-man with the vast khaki aura, a lot of money.

Og - that was her name, Og. Og was Summer's lady. She'd found me a basement apartment with a small studio in Red Hook. It was nineteen-seventy-six and Summer got me a second solo show which everyone insisted had to be 'political.'

This is how Summer said it, 'political.' Swiping the space in front of me with a couple of air quotes. 'It's the only logical next-step in your growth,' he said.

'Maps,' Og said, 'are politics for the feint of heart.' She dressed like a monk in order, I think, to wear socks and sandals and not feel self-conscious about it.

'It's one thing to draw a map,' Summer said to me, and looked across his gallery space as if it were mine to inhabit forever. 'It's one thing to draw a map, and it's another thing to be on it.'

jilly nines - birthday present

"Daddy?"

"Yes, Jilly?"

"How old will you be on your birthday?"

"Fifty-four, honey"

"Oh. How old will you be in ten years?"

"How old do you think?"

"I don't know."

"Jilly, see if you can figure it out."

"Come on, give me a hint."

"OK, what is fifty-four plus ten?"

"Thirty-seven?"

icy fog crayons

let's make a deal

normandy, france

ca. 1947

i was wondering - part 3

- i was wondering

- if the mathematics

- of denial is always

- self-taught.

- i was wondering

- what is the world's

- oldest cliche.

- i was wondering
- if it really don't mean
- a thing if it ain't got
- that ol' black magic.

- i was wondering
- if you really liked
- the symmetry of
- burning the candle
- at both ends.

- i was wondering

- and then

- i wasn't.

i'll have a blue picnic without you

my friend kathleen took this photograph this past summer.

we thought that 'i'll have a blue picnic without you' would be a good title.

here are links to some other photos that kathleen has taken and shared. . . oaks and the first flowers from this spring.

awards - gumby loves you

the. . . honest scrap award came from Charity Joy Bell.

the. . . one lovely blog award was from freegal 1000 who is also Melissa B's daughter.

and

from Ladytruth at Happily After Ever

the. . . this is probably why you've never found the end of the rainbow award is from the person who leaves anonymous comments on this blog.

i am most assuredly amazed and thankful that you read this blog. . . that in itself is enough of an award for me. . . that you've continued to tease me out of my tame obscurity.

all of these awards come with responsibilities of course and responsibility is not usually anything but the inverse of something that is more fun to do instead.

i was supposed to reveal 1,000 things that no one knows about me and i thought it would be most fun if it were 1,000 things that i did not even know about myself.

so, i asked, Jilly Nines, 'J, please tell me something that i don't know about myself."

"Gumby loves you," she said.

ok ok ok ok. that's enough.

air crow

happy halloween

skywatch friday