It’s an ungodly hour, 4 am. Even the heat hasn’t come on yet so it’s just me and the coffee maker, the odd mechanical sounds of the house idling. But I love this time in the dark to sit with… Read More ›
journal writing
Portrait of a snowman with dead grass for hair
All this snow lying around still, like frosting on a gingerbread house. At the park when it’s still dark walking a path between the setting moon and rising sun. Bit by bit the snow receded, leaving splotches of black stains… Read More ›
First Saturday in Washington
No moon at 3 AM but twinkly stars and lawns covered in white, the failing charge of the solar-powered footpath lights made a weak ghostly hue. Had to look up “what to do about itchy scalp” and wondered, could it… Read More ›
(Hidden bonus track)
Got super wired by many machine-generated coffees leaving Frankfurt. Worried I’d get waylaid with a delayed flight and have to sit there stewing in my caffeine high. Tipped the Afghan taxi driver lots; his life was hell and I believed… Read More ›
One of many endings
BESIGHEIM, 5th—II—2025 Wrapped tightly in my sheets and blankets like being inside a sarcophagus trying to get warm. The tingly feeling something’s about to happen: that’s travel. So foreign yet familiar, my second home. Looking down from the saddle on… Read More ›
Morgenstund hat Gold im Mund
3 Feb 25 It was a strange winter holiday. Who vacations in January to some place cold? The Germans in mom’s village were all speculating why I was here and was mom’s health okay? They would go to Mallorca. But… Read More ›
Last Sunday in Germany
2 Feb 25 Now the train moved in reverse as it left the station. I always enjoyed bookending my arrival in Germany with a mirror image at the end. From the time I first saw mom waiting for me at… Read More ›
Last Friday in January
31 Jan 25 I did not feel it pressing down on me, or lifting me from my bed in the middle of the night, that mad desire to capture the moment of being here. It happened in the past, for… Read More ›
Do the collapse
30 Jan 25 Went to the Rat for lunch today and yeah, I got the Schweinerückensteak, a kleine portion that was still too big. Convinced mom to forgo the Kaiserschmarrn in favor of a walk. Almost broke down for some… Read More ›
Dreams are like water, colorless and dangerous
28 Jan 25 In the dream I was a kid again with my schoolmates going somewhere far away on a school trip. We were filing into a large crowded seating area and everyone was quickly deciding who they wanted to… Read More ›
Bill Pearse 