rest in peace

photo: martin beddall

Just learned that a former boyfriend of mine, Ray Brizendine, passed away unexpectedly. He was 41 years old. I first met Ray, as did many others, in his role as backward-walking, sass-talking tour guide at Rice University. A year or so later, after I'd enrolled, I met Ray on the second floor of Jones College. It was the day after Windsor castle burned, my nineteenth birthday, and I'd stayed up all night celebrating with friends. Running down the hallway with Angela Hung on my back -- or maybe I was on Angela's back -- we crashed into Ray. Our first conversation was sitting on the floor amid images of the burning castle on the cover of the Houston Chronicle.

prosthetic memory

A pink balloon pops in front of your face -- pop -- and on a fragment of slate with a piece of chalk you write SEPTEMBER 15. A PINK BALLOON POPPED.

schematic for a german pillbox

jetheriot

an old boat in china

photo: jetheriot

morning hymn

fan-tailed grackle

photo: jetheriot

how to remain stubbornly childlike

1) Wear a bumblebee backpack everywhere.

the woman who couldn't see inside her own head

Ever since the stroke she’s been unable to see pictures in her head. When she tries to visualize something, she can't. She can see everything outside her head just fine. Inside her head: nothing.

me on a tree wart

photo: timothy frederick

daisy

My friend's dog Daisy loves to eat condoms. He says he can't leave one on the floor for even one second before Daisy runs over and snarfs it up. He thinks it's the lube that makes the condom seem so delicious to her, or else she's just really stupid. In any case, he'd taken her out for a walk in the park one afternoon . . .

replacement parts for the brain

photomontage: jetheriot

banana image courtesy: Fir0002/Flagstaffotos

If your plastic doll lost one of her legs in a playground accident, you could pop it back into her hip socket. Even if her leg were badly mangled by a lawnmower or melted off with a blowtorch, you could order a replacement, theoretically, from a toy warehouse in China. Snap the new leg on – she’s as good as she ever was.

the opposite of umbrella

photo: jetheriot

When you feel a painful emotion, your instinct is to recoil. It's painful, so you pull away.

the yellow hour

photo: jetheriot

The sun is peeking above the treeline, no longer orange, not yet white.

kindergarten graduation

That's me with my mother's parents, Yolande and Etienne Doiron -- I called them Gammy & Gampy -- after my kindergarten graduation ceremony in May 1979. 

faces of love & faces of ego

photomontage: jetheriot

the mind is elastic

When you're awake, you stretch the rubber band of your mind. When you're asleep, your rubber band relaxes. Day. Night. Day. Night. Stretch. Relax. Stretch. Relax.