I recently returned from four refreshingly long days in Lutsen along the beaches of Lake Superior’s north shore. The weather was warm and calm enough to spend one of the mornings in a kayak. After scooting along the shoreline, our tour guide led us out in to the lake, far enough out that the shore …
Author Archives: Garrick van Buren
Water Mischief
Liquid breath laughs laps against a stoney shore rebounding into a path of cobblestone glass tempting us to an unwritten horizon.
Awaiting
The still shoreline a patient sawblade the color of spent charcoal and spilled blood. Miles away a lonely lighthouse.
Laffer Curves in Everything
What if you knew that applying more effort would only make things worse? How would you proceed? Would you heed the warning? Would you stop? Or would you continue applying effort blind to the deteriorating results? I achieved burn out by expecting outsized results from an ever heroic effort. At the time, I didn’t know …
Flat
sloppy, cold rain drops drop a parking lot of glaring headlights onto my glasses as I warily kick the arm of a reluctant lug wrench in brand new flip flops.
Unwanted Tomorrow
Traffic lights count down to car horns complaining over the smallest delay. Miles of rope protect the greenness of the park’s grass from leaving on skinned knees. Fountains are emptied of water, of pennies, of hopes, of delight. The children are in a darkened museum, next to extinct birds and mammals, tapping unresponsive touch screens.
Up and Away
“Going up”, I smile scooping her toddling legs onto my shoulders. Her fingers grip a week’s worth of whiskers. As a grey March wind sweeps yesterday’s transfers and ticket stubs into the fault lines of an unimportant West Loop sidewalk. “Going up”, she smiles as the elevator lifts us 103 stories. Above dilated office windows …
Caught
Tangled in the netting of a deep blue hammock spiral jetties of sun-bleached curls shade the eyes of a sleeping mermaid in pink water wings.