After a Place in Kansas

hand bound journal, embroidered with a William  Morris style sugar skull. 

Merriam stops by, looking for cash, maybe once a month around four. She brings her nicest things. The first time I meet her, the words stretch and hang from the scab at the corner of her mouth.
She has really nice things. They're worth more than I can give, but she is in a hurry. Merriam doesn't have the time that I have. She's on her way to mass. 

Dear, please deal with the negative space I left

     It started with a ledger I found,

preserved in its original plastic, to

make a home planner/vision for a 

friend.  

     Using text books and other cut-outs, 

I provided things native to his land, 

leaving space for adding and subtracting. 

     The subtracting part is important,

so rather than glue, I sliced the pages

with a utility knife (trying not to cut 

the next page), and placed the cutouts' 

corners in the slots (remove at will).

     My favorite feature uses three 

similar layouts to the house, implying 

a garden using velcro on certain 

spaces on the plots, and providing a 

library of plants of varying sizes and 

colors, with velcro on their backs, in 

the envelope. 

The Hard Part is Over

To know you and not believe in you is a peaceful acquiescence to heritage, while wanting more from now on.

Field Guides to Acquainting with Living Things

     much like the source for their origin, these field guides have room to go in 

their arching concept of what is perception and sequentiality. mostly blank, 

the person who inherits them will have space for personal documentation with 

slight interruption of imagery; return to the scene of the crime of the things I 

left behind, and give them the purpose I didn't have the heart to.