He arrives in a gray Subaru. We ask him to pull all the way into the driveway so we can get kids off to school. He carries a clipboard, camera, and measuring tape. He has a firm grip. My wife stays behind. “He’s in the attic,” she texts me. “Is he nice?” Of course there’s no way to tell because he’s not even human. He’s a machine that takes pictures of doors that need paint and a crack in…
I was doing something outside today when I heard a rain of acorns fall from the big live oak tree. I turned to watch them land right on Sammy, the little pug-type dog that lives with us. I looked up and saw a squirrel scamper along the big branch of the oak that crosses our driveway and nearly engulfs our house, keeping it cool during summer. Then I thought about how sustainable our patch of land is for all the creatures that call…
A little black bug landed on my notebook. A tiny fellow by any measure, in my giant world. His body no more than the length of my pen’s tip, his antennae as thin as his legs. As I considered his place in the world, he walked across the page no doubt acutely aware of my presence. Perhaps even thinking what a nice giant I was to allow him such an interesting place to explore amidst deep black scratches on an ivory plane…
I want to run away with my family to a place where there is perpetual summer and no one grows old and no one changes. And because of this, I am crazy. Because the fact is life is nothing but change. When we arise each morning, we’re different people. The crease of a new wrinkle on your forehead. The sprout of a silver hair. A new idea in the mind of a child that takes her farther away from innocence. And…
Some days I want to rip this world apart and step through to the sea. *** Jim Mitchem
I believe that birds make pacts with our dogs when they build their nests in our yard. The dogs keep the cats away, and in return, the birds alert the dogs to the encroaching postman every day. And when the fledglings leave their nests and tumble to the ground, the dogs look the other way. *** Jim Mitchem
