Kristina Stykos 10/30/22 Kristina Stykos 10/30/22

Smoke

I sat near the wood stove, straddling the old bench seat, backside warming, as what we call the winter sun blazed out, behind a highway of darkening hills…

Kristina Stykos 10/25/22 Kristina Stykos 10/25/22

Stops Along the Way

She'd bought four peonies, two the same, one to go down by the brook, the rest, she said, to be placed according to my eye…

Kristina Stykos 10/19/22 Kristina Stykos 10/19/22

Patio

Back on the patio job today …

Kristina Stykos 10/17/22 Kristina Stykos 10/17/22

Plumber’s Crack

"Yeah, they've been selling like hotcakes, not sure why" she quipped, totaling up my bill for peat moss, stove gasket & a pair of navy blue suspenders…

Kristina Stykos 10/10/22 Kristina Stykos 10/10/22

Boxwood

From where I lie on my side, I can see the shadowy underbelly of a boxwood shrub, its damp, brittle branches touching a mulch of its own making…

Kristina Stykos 10/6/22 Kristina Stykos 10/6/22

My Brilliant Days

As the brilliant days of October darken, every pink, or purple left in the garden sharpens, to a heart-wrenching point…

Kristina Stykos 9/28/22 Kristina Stykos 9/28/22

Chasing Dragons

Bending to popular demand, my father would sometimes find himself in MacDonald's, awkwardly jingling the change in his pockets, which was a sign of his discomfort…

Kristina Stykos 9/27/22 Kristina Stykos 9/27/22

An Old Baptisia

“Mostly, they're just selling books to each other", said an anonymous source, when asked about the Antiquarian Book Sellers, whose brochure I was fondling…

Kristina Stykos 9/23/22 Kristina Stykos 9/23/22

Neighbor

He pulled in, his trailer hitched to his Subaru, a familiar, welcome sight…

Kristina Stykos 9/17/22 Kristina Stykos 9/17/22

Ode to Wild Water

It's been a while since the wild water looked like this, but it will again, god willing…

Kristina Stykos 9/12/22 Kristina Stykos 9/12/22

Shift

Still seems like summer, the invisible crickets and warm afternoon sun like a drug, lazily mainlined, in complete denial of what comes next…

Kristina Stykos 9/10/22 Kristina Stykos 9/10/22

Provisional

Who would have thought this would be happening in the little town of Ripton, but traffic jams do occur…

Kristina Stykos 9/5/22 Kristina Stykos 9/5/22

Cocker

The road is gently marked by a hand painted sign, & then the driveway off the driveway, not at all…

Kristina Stykos 8/28/22 Kristina Stykos 8/28/22

Willing to Wait

I've learned to use gas pumps without card readers again, like learning to push eight buttons in succession, on a phone that is not, also, a computer …