November Porch Vacation
A good book. A lounge chair. The sun makes freckles on my bared skin. A single fat fly buzzes by like a fighter pilot that doesn’t know the war is over. This one doesn’t know it isn’t summer. A clumsy yellow hornet goes down, crashes into my arm. I flick it off while sipping every color of the rainbow reflected off my cobalt blue mug.
Green tea with jasmine steeped in last night’s dreams. My husband sprawled long in the next chair. His Caribbean turquoise shirt against the brown November landscape is like a postcard in the mail. It teases my imagination awake. With the trees stripped of leaves, I can hear the distant car zoom past on the Parkway. Speedboats racing against the gravity of time? No gas was spent to get here. No ticking of a mocking clock. The shadow of my hand looms large on glossy paper. A grey bird bravely chirps.
Comments
Thanks - I just had a 5 minute glorious vacation!
Posted by: Rebekah | November 26, 2006 6:34 PM
LOVE IT! What a splendid idea!
Posted by: Deana | November 26, 2006 7:19 PM
That's beautiful, Colleen. You are very observant of your surroundings, which is an essential quality for a writer, I think.
Posted by: kenju | November 26, 2006 7:35 PM
So beautifully poetic Colleen...I love all the images...I can just see Joe in that beautiful shirt!
Summer in November...BEAUTIFUL!
Posted by: OldOldLady Of The Hills | November 26, 2006 7:58 PM
Wow!
It takes Thomas Pynchon 1085 pages to do stuff like this. Hey, I'd read 1085 pages of this! But I don't have to. You did it in 155 words.
As far as Parkway sounds go, I would hear them on the moon at this point.
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving. I'll read down and find out.
Posted by: Rick | November 26, 2006 8:24 PM
you're tagged for a 3 word meme...
Posted by: Rebekah | November 26, 2006 8:28 PM
Thanks Colleen, I've been trolling the blogs for days looking for the perfect cap to my week off work. You managed it in two paragraphs. What a great visual treat spoken directly to my imagination. I am refreshed.
Posted by: Gary Boyd | November 26, 2006 9:07 PM
That was a pretty little excursion.
Posted by: Rhea | November 26, 2006 9:42 PM
Beautiful writing--and you got the book!! I'm so excited!
Posted by: patry | November 26, 2006 9:44 PM
Love this. Sheer paradise.
Posted by: Elissa | November 27, 2006 1:06 AM
I just love the way you've described a perfect snippet of day. I'll look more carefully at details the next time I sit outside.
Posted by: deirdre | November 27, 2006 2:00 AM
great post!
Posted by: ronbailey | November 27, 2006 4:54 AM
you must be having the same warm spell we are. very beautifully written!
Posted by: bluemountainmama | November 27, 2006 11:03 AM
I like this vingnette.
Especially the bit about your husbands shirt. I'm like that, things mean what they shouldn't to me. It's all about color...
Posted by: Jos | November 27, 2006 11:57 AM
sigh... what can one say to that? except maybe, cheers :)
Posted by: keda | November 27, 2006 12:13 PM
Goregous! Love the torquoise shirt description. My favorite mug is cobalt too.
Posted by: Pearl | November 27, 2006 1:06 PM
Life is short. One cannot take too many vacations.
Posted by: srp | November 27, 2006 1:06 PM
You sure are a great writer. I felt like I was sitting with you and taking it all in. xo
Posted by: Sherry | November 27, 2006 3:53 PM
So beautifully written! I love the tea "steeped in last night's dreams"! The fat fly=bomber pilot is great!
It is a very calm time, although it could just be that quiet tension waiting for winter to be unleashed like a bull let out of the pen at a rodeo!
Posted by: ruth | November 27, 2006 7:21 PM
Your words are magic. I was taken there, beside you.
Posted by: Coll | November 28, 2006 10:44 AM