September 15, 2008

•About my Aunt Mary. She wasn't an aunt at all. That's the south for you. It was a way to celebrate someone.


I've tried to turn my home on the Hudson River into a reflection of my past. White wicker chairs on my front porch in Rhinecliff mesh close together, paint crusted over. They have been in my family for so many years. And held the seats of the laughing and the sorrowful. Now they are transplanted to a porch not far from a busy street. Hilly land now. No Gulf in front of the house, no asazleas and oleandas growing but it safe to walk down the three faded steps to the car parked by my door. You can rest on the chairs faded orange cushions and feel the river on your face. It's just on the other side of the road and over a cliff.The town is called Rhinecliff. But the Hudson River never swells up and rolls over the cliff into the town.