Mr. Hutchins

I never knew a middle class black family until I went to college. Instead, this was my reality growing up in rural Virginia. Mr. Hutchins I sat at the kitchen table drawing with my fat pencil as my grandmother hummed and patted out dough for fried apple pies. This far out in the country you […]
Why Men Fish

Fishing is the great metaphor. It is about being small and insignificant. About being lifted and lowered in your little boat by the mysterious depths. I used to fish on sunny days after school. I would shrug off my books filled with histories and sciences and maths, and grab my pole and box of lures, […]
The Idea of a Garden

My beans are up, raising their sleepy genius heads out of the cracked soil. Before it was a garden this little plot was my driveway. I take pride in coming up with the idea to make better use of it. It wasn’t until the conversion from driveway to garden was complete that it started to […]
The Chimney

My father built the log cabin in which I grew up. It was built beside a Civil War–era farmhouse in the Virginia piedmont. That old farmhouse was in such disrepair that it had to be torn down, but the chimney remained along with portions of the foundation. We re-used many of the building materials and artifacts […]
Recent Comments