Tutorials
“The body of Christ” my babysitter, acting as priest, intoned and held up the host. We six-year-olds responded “Amen,” closed our eyes, and stuck out our tongues . . . First Holy Communion. I was terrified I would make a mistake before the entire church. My parents, Eucharistic ministers, kept a supply of unconsecrated wafers in the kitchen cupboard. I pocketed a handful and met up with neighborhood children to practice. The wafer was dry and lodged against the roof of my mouth. I worked it free, chewed carefully, and swallowed several times. We practiced until the wafers all ran out . . .
fairy tales—
such faith
in a trail of breadcrumbs . . .
Middle Distance
“More than any other skeletal feature, the skull is the greatest source of information about an animal’s lifestyle.”
(From the book Naturally Curious; A Photographic Field Guide and Month-by-Month Journey through the Fields, Woods, and Marshes of New England)
Inside mine maybe a cache of ground fog masquerading as a cloud or perhaps a clod of dirt, enough to shield a hibernating toad suspended below the frost line. Someday, may someone rinse the cavity of my skull clean and place it high on a shelf where I might glimpse it as I roam the vast ghost plains of past lives. May I remember then what it was like to be exactly where I am now, which is nowhere really. Lost and floating, staring blankly, absent of all thought, not a toad in my head.
mountain glow
almost holding on
to an answer