A ruined city glimpsed between thick clouds, spires and skyscrapers towering above the earth, breaking through the eternal fog enveloping its forgotten world. Sunlight poking through the windows illuminated dangling innards -- wires and ventilation ducts. Cold and empty and beckoning explorers and wanderers alike. I stood somewhere within the fog layer but still outside … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Lost to Hidden
While ducking under the bone-bare branches of a snowy wood, I came face to face with a pale barn owl. It perched on an aspen branch at the exact height to be eye level with me when I stepped around the tree's trunk. I found myself close enough to count the small feathers on its … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Dreams of Home
Every wrecked window of the fallen airplane contained a different story. The story that interested me existed at the front of the plane. Or it would have, if the crash hadn't shorn the cockpit windows clean off when it plowed the plane's nose into the ground. I stood on the spine of a once-white, narrow-body … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Wreckage Recollected
From a nearby pond, I heard a very small argument. More of a berating, actually. A tiny voice pierced the peace of the meadow where I lay napping. "You must fly!" it shrilled. "How else can we be together?" With a groan, I sat upright, immediately spotting the speaker. A handsome blue and black butterfly … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Macabre Collaboration
A thump sounded beside me as an object landed in the springy moss along the dirt path where I walked. Following its trajectory, I figured it had come from a house crowding this side of the walkway; a lacy curtain stirred in a high open window, but no light filtered from within. There was no … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – The Hardest of Hearts
Clusters of bells hung in every archway of an old stone city. At the center of each was the original bell and along both sides of its dark, weathered chain, smaller bells clung like uneven bunches of brass fruit. I stood below one such cluster, listening to their small clappers shivering in the breeze. Bright … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Howler Alarms
One of the rare times that I tripped, I happened to do so over the heads of a pair of gods, which I had mistaken for a pile of stones. Though they were sunk to their shoulders into the ground, they smiled contentedly at me. One had moss growing on its round cheeks and the … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Resting Gods
Glass tubes glinted in the afternoon sunlight pouring in through the front window. Each tube contained a bright colored liquid, several flower varieties soaking up the colorful water. Only, their blossoms were the wrong color. As I examined them, yet another bloom changed, a pink carnation darkening to brown. I turned to the florist hovering … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Dying Flowers
There was a star caught in a tree. Branches hung over a neighborhood sidewalk and the first breath of fall had convinced some of the topmost leaves to begin drying out. It was in this cluster of yellow foliage that a golden spark twinkled. I stood below on the cracked sidewalk, head craned back. "Did … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Soul Glow
"It collects starlight, you see," my host explained. She sat across from me at her kitchen table, the two of us admiring a geometrically cut crystal orb dangling from the top of the big picture window overlooking her dining room. Weak afternoon sunlight filtered through the orb, scattering little rainbows across the table's surface. I … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – The Cost of Skepticism
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