Comfort Inn, Sheepshead Bay
I sunned myself outside a bike rental shop that looked like a fake castle. I ate a breakfast sandwich with a coffee that tasted like a coffee of the 1970s. I found a sacred datura plant and a pokeweed growing together at the gateway to an old military bunker with a huge parking lot covered with the marks of tires of cars doing donuts. I biked across sheepshead bay with my friend Jason and saw a fisherman in a boat catch a big grey fish and then a fisherman on a big round concrete block catch a smaller sparklier fish. I saw round steps that go down to the beach and a shuffle board court with goldenrod and a pile of bricks and vines in a not-quite forest. I helped pick a spot for the photoshoot and I ordered a milkshake that tasted like a hiking protein bar called the Breezy Special and I rode a comfortable bike back across the bridge where the fishermen were and I saw the place on the ocean where a ship ran aground and I saw some big shells and tall grasses and lots of different acorns and I found the place where they fly kites but there was not enough wind and the sun went down and I found another patch of pokeberries and red leaves and porcelain berry vines and a big spider with two wrapped up parcels on either side of her on a fence. I argued with the Uhaul guy about renting in America with only a Canadian driver’s licence while sitting in a tiny chair beside where they sold the rainbow metalic jackknives. I bought a mini box of Altoids. I ate toast with the most deliciously prepared plum jam or was it Japanese cherries anyway I left the envelope with the expenses there by mistake but got the shovel and supplies and the old chest and was followed by an ambulance but the truck was too big to get out of the way and I got back to the hotel to worry about if the van would be safe with all that stuff in it overnight in the parking lot that smelled like fish and I worried about the shoot tomorrow and if anyone would show up and if I had enough information and if I had the right supplies and energy to pull this thing off. I texted my friend and she made me feel calmer and sent me a short story about a hotel that made me less calm. The moon came up. It was big and orangey-yellow and not exactly round. And I wondered about magic and wrote this for you.
JL
There's something oddly calming, soothing about your run on sentences that ramble and pull me into your head and heart. I find myself tumbling along with your words, dunking more deeply into a precious present. And what else is there to do anyway? I am grateful. Thank you 🙏🏽
I had coffee from the 1970s this morning. It’s spectacular and terrible all at the same time. I can picture all of this in my mind’s eye. Thank you for building such special visual imagery.