Francesca Forrest's Blog, page 69

deer

Deer have been wandering through the woods/swamp behind my house in the mornings, it's on their route from one place to another. I love how they're both present and invisible. You have to wait for them to move to see them, just ripples in the air, they blend in so well, but with watching eyes and their white-flag tails if they're startled.

I think with their camouflage they could wander across worlds and dimensions and centuries. It makes me understand why the shishigami, the forest spirit, in...

rice cracker man

I'm inordinately pleased with this guy, so pleased that I'm sharing him all over the place. Look at his head! Look at his curved arms, his nicely patterned legs, his power source at his middle.

He's a champion, I tell you. He'll... do what rice cracker champions do, feats as yet unknown.



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colors

On Friday, people were in arresting colors. Taking Wakanomori in to work, I saw a girl wearing bright orange hightops, like in the upper right corner (only brigher).

Then on my way to the jail, I saw a mother and daughter, daughter on a tiny two-wheeler bike, mother alongside, like bottom right. They both had robin's-egg blue headgear: a bike helmet for the little one, a baseball cap for the mom.

Then *at* the jail, in the lobby, there was an older woman in a bright pink track suit, with black...

whale shark

Today's sleet and rain has broken the spell that hid the true nature of our driveway. In reality, it is a whale shark.

Sorry we've been parking on top of you, whale shark!



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babies

Babies like human faces, I'm told, but apparently especially other babies' faces. There were two baby girls in the arms of family members, sitting in front of us in church yesterday, both about nine months old. On the right, the youngest of six siblings (a beautiful family--I've really loved seeing the kids get older and each new baby turn into a small child). This child had caramel-colored hair, tights with hearts on them, and a pink sweater, and at one point her next-up sister gave her a gl...

solid metaphors

I went to photograph the Band-aid from yesterday ( which upon closer inspection may not be a Band-aid at all ; so much for waxing lyrical). I went in a rain-snow drizzle, and on the way I found these hulking, shining, solid metaphors.

Side tracks and switch--do you want to change direction?



You may wish to switch tracks, but you probably don't want to be sidelined.


How long, how long must I wait here?

This isn't really a metaphor, but I like the promise of a golden west, here in the gloomy east. No...

Band-aid

My run today took me across an expanse of concrete beside the train tracks, I think a former staging area? There was a large Band-aid on it, as if over a wound, a wound in the concrete. I'm imagining the determined child who saw the concrete's boo-boo, went home, got the Band-aids out of the medicine cabinet, and came back and applied it. Or maybe the child was walking with an adult who happened to be carrying some emergency bandages, just in case.

So then I was wondering what caused the wound...

claw game

I remember hearing a story somewhere, a while ago, about a lawsuit against those claw games where you operate a claw to pick up a toy. I know it was folk knowledge that those games were rigged, and sure enough, they were rigged--hence the lawsuit. The plaintiffs won, so the claw games were required to be winnable with a reasonable application of skill. ( Here's a story I found when I searched on "claw game lawsuit" that describes it in more detail.)

I thought of this because today at the Blandf...

creating a small eternity

Since Easter is tied to the full moon, it's not surprising that I saw a huge and copper-colored disk floating just above the horizon in the twilight yesterday evening, on my way to the Easter Vigil Mass. Not surprising, but breathtaking.

( about the Easter Vigil )

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Esmeralda Santiago

Esmeralda Santiago is a writer I hadn't heard of before a couple of weeks ago, when J, one of the teachers at the educational program I volunteer with in Holyoke, said she was coming to give a talk at Holyoke Community College. "I was hoping you could talk her up in your creative writing session and get some of the students to come."

He handed me the sheet on her, and wow:

Esmeralda Santiago grew up in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico in a one-room shack with a dirt floor and tin roof. Her family moved t...