There are 860 hairpin turns on Mexico’s Highway 120 which snakes through the Sierra Gorda Mountains in the Northern Central Highlands. Looking down at the valleys while the bus driver navigated 180 degree turns with skill I couldn’t help but wonder what little a guardrail would do (where there were some) to stop a mammoth …
Two guys are opening their surf shack. One of them is digging perfectly spaced holes in the sand, the other is dropping bright yellow umbrellas into the holes and popping them open. A man sits on the stone wall facing the surf, barefoot, a cell phone glued to his head, a deep frown marking his …
There isn’t much by way of furnishing in the Queen’s imprisonment room. There’s a little white bed, a rather ornate loveseat, and a dresser. There’s a large crazy quilt displayed under Plexiglas, it’s beautiful and sad, but not as sad as the little Chinese birdcage that stands empty on top of the dresser. Queen Liliuokalani …
It is easy, with a handful of years behind us, to say that on September 11, 2001, everything changed. It is easy to look back and see ourselves shifted into shadow and grief as though in that one horrible moment, something black crossed in front of the sun. And for some it is true, it …
They all turned and looked when we walked into the diner. It wasn’t unfriendly, I think they just wanted to see who we were. We weren’t the neighbors or the shopkeeper’s kids or that guy’s wife, the one he brought in from Billings, we weren’t anyone, so the entire place, which stopped, for a blink …
It’s not completely abandoned. Even though the arched windows and doors of the church are covered with plywood, there’s a hand written cardboard sign nailed to the fence. “Please keep the cemetery neat. Garbage pickup is on [too blurry from water damage to read].” The air is cold and the sky is blue. There wind …