“There hadn’t really been any decision. As she dragged the round topped trunk up the steps and propped it’s lid against the table, she was thinking that you never really made up your mind to anything, you simply bent where the pressure was greatest. You didn’t surrender because surrender was annihilation you gave before the pressure.”

The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner March 1, 1991 by Penguin Books – originally published 1943. 

The cold hits as soon as I step out the door.

It snakes around looking for any chink in my armor.

Like an ancient serpent of lore,

or like the whisperings of a heretical saint.

Stay inside, stay inside.

But long before the day begins.

I am off, embracing the flow of endorphins.

As I walk, I think I bet its not this cold in North Carolina.

Thinking of you Peter and Lynn.

© by Dan DeMarle 2009

Another year.

Floated by.

I wasn’t watching carefully.

It snuck around a corner.

Like a half inflated balloon.

Floating low to the ground.

It hit my on my head.

As I turned,

with rake in hand.

Bang I was a year older.

© by Dan DeMarle 2009

Walking

The streets quiet

Later

Early morning runners go by

Sunrise meets me on a hill

Turning back

Phone rings

Meet up with Fred

Down to the river

Meet up with Joanne and Deb

Solitary walk now a social event

Laughing as we

walk along the river

The group divides

Divides again

Children rise

Breakfast

© by Dan DeMarle 2007

© picture by Dan DeMarle 2018