Seasonal Affection

virga (VUHR-guh) noun

Rain or snow that evaporates before hitting the ground.

Here would best go a picture painted--or taken--specifically to evoke an uncertain mood. Insert: A man standing in the shallow end of the outdoor pool, water up to just under his knees. Black trunks, blue stripes (if in black and white, two shades of dark). Dry hair, uncombed. Centered, staring straight; a background of overcasting storm clouds.

Foreword: My job is a tennis ball caked in mud, hidden by last Fall's leaves, somewhere in the woods.

Caption: Do you remember what it's like to run without purpose?

Want To Get Away

misology (mi-SOL-uh-jee) noun

Hatred of logic or reason.

Lester sits at the breakroom table looking at the glossy pages of an oversized, hardcover book spread-out before him. A can of cola, opened, positioned to his left, fizzles. To his right lies an end-torn, squared column of saltine crackers on its side. The two seen pages of the book reveal vast photographs of natural settings: a springtime mountainside anew with green; thick dark-barked trees shading soft-moss underbellies; an overhead meadow view with a captured breeze in tilting grass and small shadows of distant clouds. Lester reads the photographs, studies them, turns the pages delicately, as if to the rhythm of a slow-moving waterwheel. His focus consumes him; his head lowers to the book; he breathes noticeably. The pages shine, flash with color that reflect off Lester's near-oval lenses--his lips part--and he blinks in deliberate disbelief. Grazing across the emanating photographs, his fingertips edge toward the center crease, then stop, suddenly, and stretch, flattening his hands to cover the most space available on each side. Lester straightens his back, closes his eyes, and mumbles a half-phrase while veering his head slightly back soas to face the ceiling. His body starts trembling--subtly, first, then quickly escalating to the point of near violence, his hands stuck to the book like stone. Bolts of color shoot from the pages, flinging off his glasses and brushing his hair back in sharp bursts of wind. The can of cola teeters, tips, rolls to the ground. A loud, tonal alarm sounds and Lester matches its intensity with a primal yawl. His sweat now mingles with tears.

All movement, sound, and energy stops. Cale, a coworker, enters the breakroom and opens the door to the microwave, his back to the table. Lester, his face lodged into the crease of the book, snores lightly and drools. A cola stream crosses the table, passes Lester's glasses, and drips from the edge of the table onto the floor, where a puddle has formed around an empty cola can. Without notice to Lester, Cale reaches into the microwave, retracts with a wince, briefly sucks on the tip of his finger, pauses, tears off a sheet from a nearby paper towel, then reaches again, covering his hand with the towel. This time, he returns with a mini pot pie.

"Aw, man. Shit's burnt." Cale places the pot pie on the counter and begins opening cabinets and, only after sound inspection, removes a plate, a fork, and knife.

As the commotion proceeds, Lester stirs, lifts his head. One page from the book lifts with him, stuck to his cheek.

A Quiet Snow

umbrage (UHM-brij) noun

1. Offense or annoyance arising from some insult.

2. Shade, as from a tree.

3. A vague suggestion or a feeling of suspicion.

Last week I put together a mix CD called "Wintry Mix", inspired by the sudden cold and the soft comfort of falling snow. I chose tracks based on how I thought they'd sound as music to winter's more iconic pictures or maybe accompaniment to building the season's first fire. Right now, outside my work window, I can't stop myself from watching one of those pictures form, from the quickly disappearing sidewalk cracks, to the now clearly defined branches on a bare tree.

Snow lacks the basic follies of human judgement--discrimination, fear, self-censorship--equalizing every civilized triumph and failure to the same state, blinding value and suffocating class. She touches, kisses steps like foreheads, fills holes and paints hills. Ignorant, silent like love, snow holds, embracing.