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“It’s wafer thin,” he’d say, laughing,as he placed the tiny tab on his tongue, eyes closing briefly, smirking. “Wafer thin!” And he’d start gently laughing in anticipation of the ride ahead, 8 hours away from reality.

That’s a trebuchet, he said, smirking at both her and the screen simultaneously. Not a catapult. Geez. As if her lack of knowledge about medieval weaponry somehow made her less intelligent, less desirable, less of a partner. You know what? She asked as the movie played on, “Fuck you and your trebuchet.”

My shoulder has a habit of betraying me, after years of abuse while climbing – getting torqued and stressed and worked in ways that they aren’t really necessarily meant to. Although we may have come down from the trees, I don’t think we are really supposed to spend so much time going up and up and up….but it’s so damn fun.

Auburn as a hair color is always cited as being so gorgeous, but isn’t it really just brown? “You have such wonderful nut-brown hair” my mother used to say as I assaulted it with bleach and dye, turning the nutty mass into a thick, tortured tangle of green and red and pink (although never all together.) I don’t even know what color it is anymore, after all these years.

Ah, the overall goal of my life right now is to simplify and by doing so, hopefully live simply. Butit doesn’t work if only one half of the couple buys into the philosophy and is dedicated to putting it in place – otherwise, the resentment and sense of hopelessness takes the place of pride and progress.

Dry leaves igniting and then in a whomp of air, burning and then done in a matter of seconds; the heart yearning, needing so much that it almost bursts out of your chest, setting your blood on fire with each beat; the hot red flush of shame on your cheeks as your secret is revealed.

This business relationship is dissolved. No more. Friends enter the cut throat world of economics and capitalism, and gosh, isn’t great? And then comes the money, and the bickering turns into arguing, and then suddenly not only is the business relationship gone but so too is the friendship. Be warned.

“You have to be kind to crows”, my grandmother always said. “They are emissaries from the other side.” As if being kind to them was a choice – I suppose you could go and hunt them, but really, they exist almost outside the normal plane of experience – so smart, able to use tools, recognize human faces, and communicate this to their young.
Damn straight you better be kind. She really should have said “Don’t mess with them, child, or you’ll be in for a world of hurt.”

The planter was the size of an old Volkswagen beetle – in the shape of a rabbit. It’s back was full of earth and who knew what (oh please, let it be carrots growing there, she’d think as they sped by) and for awhile it’s coat of paint was peeling and decrepit. Plans to somehow steal it away in a borrowed pick-up truck in the night disappeared when, the next spring, it’s coat was fresh and gleaming white.

Magenta – the color of tropical flowers on bare sticks in the dry season, of my skin after a few hours on the beach, even with SPF 50 on (sweat-proof, waterproof, my sunburned ass!) the color of passion and anger and lust, and sweetness all rolled into one.