True Florida Stories
I rolled down our car’s window and extended my gloved hand. Another gloved hand gave me a high school diploma, and a muffled voice congratulated me. My mom drove out of the bus loop where our graduation ceremony was hosted in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. The brown brick buildings that housed the final years of my adolescence shrunk in the rear view mirror for the last time. Ahead of me: the real world … Continue readingA love letter to odd jobs
It’s 6:50 a.m. in a nondescript Dunnellon shopping center. Street lights and neon store signs cast a dim glow over the dark lot and Publix won’t open for another ten minutes.Â
The parking lot is almost empty, except for the scattering of cars belonging to the members of the Workout Anytime gym and those of a group of 14 old men sitting along the benches outside of the Breakfast Station restaurant … Continue readingThe ROMEOs
A grizzled man smoking a cigarette in his Confederate flag adorned pickup truck was the first time I saw a Florida stereotype in the flesh … Continue readingWarming up
As autumn stretches into the icy grip of winter, a curious change occurs in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. The sky, usually a deep, endless blue, turns orange.  The color comes slowly at first, a hint of warmth scattered among the evergreen pines and palmettos, then it descends all at once, painted on the backs of small, fragile wings that have traveled thousands of miles … Continue readingA monarch’s legacy Â
The yarn slips through my fingers with a whisper, my hands following the memory of thousands of stitches looped, checked for errors and redone again. Soft cotton or bamboo works best, the gentle tug of string against the crochet hook providing just enough texture to allow a good grip on the task at hand. Ignore the ache of panic behind my eyes; focus on the stitches … Continue readingKnotted thoughts