Tuesday, October 21, 2003

Woodsmoke and Snow

Cloudy; the night is dark between the streetlamps. Last night’s coyotes have grown silent, their voices dampened sans moon. On the end of her leash the invisible dog rasps in the chilled air, tugs like a fish nibbling on a deep sea line, sniffs woodsmoke and snow. A distant sky glow marks nearby Greenfield, where everything’s long closed but the neon stays on all night, illuminating the highway and the sky to the south. Otherwise, from here tonight looks like...nothing.

This morning the world burst forth from nothing, too. Not just the darkness of sleep, although that, too – I mean to say here something vivid and sensory about the way I sat in the car for a couple of minutes waiting for heat to burn the frost off the windshields and mirrors before driving off into the New England morning fog, the reds and golds of the last few trees to lose their green around me, the road rustling. I mean to say it, but the night is already close, closing around me, as I move towards that littledeath sleep once again. It’s hard to stay focused. It’s harder with the vision fading, the first sense opening up the others for that briefest moment before total end-of-day shutdown.

Tonight’s radio show playlist, then. And, soon, the light rasp of breath on the next pillow over, the finger touch of our daughter between us reaching out in sleep, the weight of the smalldog on my calf under the velvet coverlet.


Tributary 10/20/03
with cover songs starred

Bob Dorough -- Too Much Coffee Man
A Tribe Called Quest -- I Left My Wallet In El Segundo
Rusted Root -- Rising Sun
*Santana -- Oye Como Va
Barry White -- Can't Get Enough Of Your Love, Baby
Habib Koite -- Batoumambe
Cesaria Evora -- Tchintchirote
*Sarah McLachlan -- Dear God
Tori Amos -- The Wrong Band
*Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise -- It'll Come To You
Ben Harper -- Steal My Kisses
Eddie From Ohio -- Monotony
Erin McKeown -- Queen Of Quiet
Bela Fleck -- Throwdown At The Hoedown
Girlyman -- The Shape I Found You In
*Nickel Creek -- Spit On A Stranger
Jack Johnson -- Rodeo Clowns
*Patty Griffin -- Stolen Car
Barenaked Ladies -- When I Fall
Dar Williams -- Bought And Sold
*The Wayfaring Strangers -- Man Of Constant Sorrow
Allison Krauss -- Down In The River To Pray
*Gillian Welch -- Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor
*The Bobs -- Golden Road
Bobby McFerrin -- Baby
*James Taylor -- Walkin' My Baby Back Home
Phish -- All Things Reconsidered

posted by boyhowdy | 12:55 AM |

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