She worried about the camera, at first.
But quickly gained confidence.
Publication note: My poem “Dragonfly” appears in Issue 11 of Victorian Violet Journal, which launched yesterday.
Author: Rae Spencer
The Old Cactus
When we moved into this house in 2001, we found a potted cactus abandoned by the previous owners. Since then the cactus has outgrown three pots, survived snowstorms and hurricanes, and inspired a cactus-themed flower bed. But it isn’t a pretty creature. Spiders haunt its tightly-woven spines, spinning dense shrouds of web around its base. Leaves cling to it, and its barbs penetrate leather gloves as easily as they run through flimsy cotton. Its trunk is twisted, half-collapsed on one side, leaning heavily against a trio of stakes. I wonder, sometimes, if it aches with age. If it feels the listing slump of years and yearns for the tall, unblemished symmetry of youth.
And then it blooms. More and more blooms each summer. More and more beautiful…
Hot Weather and Dragonflies
The forecast says cooler weather is on the way, along with rain. I’m ready for a respite from the heat, but I’m not sure the dragonflies agree.
The first one is a Black Saddlebags dragonfly. The second is a Blue Dasher.
Old Photos
My mother’s family took photos. Lots and lots of photos. Mother always meant to organize and scan the pictures. She wanted a digital archive that could be saved and shared, one of the many projects left unfinished when she died.
I’ve been making slow progress with the photos, which is fascinating, frustrating work. Most are not labelled, so scanning is the easy part. The hard part will begin later, when I try to match names and faces, to reunite families and trace their paths through time.
Clouds on the Horizon
This morning started with anxiety, and the day has continued with anxiety. It’s a nebulous, eerie sensation of “something wrong” that has absolutely no basis in observable fact. Except, there are these clouds…
Rae Spencer 