March Making Good

From the porch in Roundagator after the rain with all of the animals near and a sweet breeze in the air like an angel

I don’t know, I got home from the coast and it seemed like in two days everything had bloomed and leafed out and the yard was full of clover and dandelions and dock and antbeds and bees and birds, talk about plush, and I could hear her telling me to be careful and wear shoes because there’s bees and if you’re barefoot you’ll step on them and they will sting you,

Also watch for snakes,

It seems like there wasn’t any poison ivy in North Carolina,

And riding home today from the grocery store the sky was stormy and with sunset, and the dogs were smiling in the backseat and I was thinking, we would be so blessed if we could live in the present always, especially when the present is like this,

Deep carpet of weeds, the first four leaf clover, and then the next four leaf clover, of the year, he said I have never seen one out here, and I was caught thinking last week, the genes for it just aren’t here, and then, ta-da, the little four leaf clovers sun-facing and laughing,

And I started wearing gloves to move the tin because no one is really impressed by hard hands, and I’m more interested in not cutting my hands deeply or badly, and I’m not sure when my last tetanus shot was, but I was sure going to be barefoot because you don’t go around shaking feet, and I moved the tin mostly in twos, until the side yard was laid out in tin and maybe we’ll plant sunflowers next year where the tin is now, a big bright row of them, taller and taller, and while I’m thinking about moving the tin and then moving the rotting wood the roofers threw from the shack roof, I’m smiling and worrying about what we will plant next and when we can burn this pile of wood, and how lucky I am that I haven’t stepped on all of these rusty nails yet, and the job is so close to being done and after that I can go in any direction still because it’s Sunday and it could be the studio or the tiller or reading, because no one remembers this author though he wrote so much and I feel like I can understand him, and ow! Ow! Quietly cursing because whatever happened hurts but it’s still Sunday and the preacher is next door, though what’s in my foot doesn’t feel like briar - looking down - sure enough. Only a quarter inch deep and the nail isn’t That rusty, maybe I don’t need a tetanus shot at all, but I’d hate to deprive anyone of all of my talking and did you know lockjaw doesn’t set in for eight to twenty days?

And it was a blessing because the urgent care was open, and I could afford to get a tetanus shot, and she decided to come in to work on a Sunday. And with all of the nails that have been dropped out here in the past eighty years, it was going to happen one day.

Oh I started writing at the beginning of the month and it wasn’t even spring yet, and now here it is, this has been the month for the upswelling,

Regardless of how you feel about the state of just the internet, I love to watch it because we are all acting in conjunction if we see it or not, trying to be all creatures of the same nest but still determined to keep pushing everyone else out, it takes two birds to build a nest usually, and I still think of the birds picking up the mane and tail and winter coat from my horse and carrying it to build their nest, warm it, fluff it,

The trees helped, the horse helped, string and plastic, too, we don’t have to be born in it to help make it do,

Well it seems like a big month, and that seems lonesome because in two months will I remember any of it and in five years could I tell you where I was on March 11th?

Oh I don’t know the last time you got down and played around in the mud and the dirt, I guess it’s natural when you’re a kid and maybe it translates to digging in the garden, but there’s this field up the road and when my folks were here and we were walking up the road it stunk because the water had been sitting so long, and I thought, why isn’t it draining, everything else around here does and this winter I put my boot toe in the water and dug a little ditch into the real county ditch, and it drained, and then the county came and put in a new drain pipe, and boy it’s really draining now, I showed it to him and he said, I did the same thing when I was a kid, I said, it’s just as fun today.

Anyway that’s a thing you can do in the country for fun, if you want to, outside of digging up bulbs somewhere or making bottle trees in the woods or finding forgotten cemeteries, or making your own garden, or looking for broken glass and pottery and arrow heads from a century ago, up in old houses, across new bridges, bobcats, hawks, owls, counting deer,

They chased that same old raccoon for two months and,

He was saying I remember my dad taught me that after the cut quits bleeding you don’t need to bandage it anymore, it’s better for the oxygen to reach it, it’s better to put oil on the scab if it gets too tough,

The carpenter bees are hard workers and they’ll drill a hole anywhere, and they’re always at the door, loud and close and bumbling, imagine to be a bee in the beginning of spring, there’s one around my head now and the calling yellow of the dandelions and turnip bolted, the clusters of redbuds and sticky poplar pods,

Waiting on the next storm, a cool breeze on the porch and it’s quiet with birds and this bee, no church across the street this morning,

When I planted the hollyhocks last year I didn’t know where I would be when they came up, he said it takes a year for them to come up at all, to even think about flowering. Nothing has ever been determined or certain or sure, especially what life would look like a year on. They started growing green in January and it seemed too good to be true. And the best part is, I’m still here. And things have only gotten better. It’s so easy to run these days, and it’s easy, too, to change your name and change your whole life if you wanted. Move across the country. Try something new. As much as I hated my name as a kid, I am so glad it is mine now, something I got to grow into. As much as life can be hard, here, there, I am glad we rode it out to the other side,

Keep looking up!

Our life has continued easily, earnestly, uneventfully, and that’s a blessing, too.

And there’s a cowbird couple in the garden looking for bugs, he is watching me while she hops across the ground, and there were three or four toads in the okra garden, they look so much like the buckshot dirt it’s amazing what nature has done,

the miracles of the month include the mulberry tree we planted last year making mulberries, the catalpa tree man selling me beautiful crooked catalpa saplings, the strange and quick movements of underwater creatures in the pond, the silent nurtia moving not five feet away, a red thrasher outsider of the laudryroom window, a handful of redbuds, a hillside of phlox, an asparagus bed in full return, a neighbor with a tractor and some time to help, a little pollen covered bee, the seeds that sprouted, turtles moved safely off of the road, that bakery in new orleans still having my favorite things that i used to get more than five years ago, the engine light that turned on in the middle of the interstate also just turned off, the swamp privet startling yellow and fragrant in the distant woods, i said what is that, and we drove down the turn row to find out, the monarch butterfly early and bright in the cedar trees floating up, up, up,

The beginning of the month spring hadn’t even been a breath and now it’s the whole world, it happened that quickly and silently, now it’s riotously spring, when I go walking I check the pecan tree up the road, keeping it’s leaves still to itself, soon it will be good friday but we already started planting, to plant is to hope, even when you don’t realize you’re planting little wishes, even when you don’t feel like there’s any hope. Wishing the whole world hollyhocks.

hello! hello! the next show opens April 5th from 6 pm to 9 pm, at Bozarts Gallery in Water Valley, Mississippi. i’m either making red velvet cake or little peanut butter eggs and i hope to see you there - wilbur does, too. It’s exciting to share this show with Jackson-based photographer, Suzi Altman. She’s lived many lives more than i have and it’s always a joy to share the color and story of Margaret’s Grocery and other folk art sites. You can see more of her work here - https://www.suzialtman.com/index

Also i guess it’d be good to share the gallery’s Facebook, huh? Check it out if you are on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bozartsgallery/

i am in a blessed place in life and i got to write about that for my favorite magazine in the world, Country Roads Magazine, for their April road trip issue. Many thanks to Jordan for the excellent editing, and for going for the proposal. It’s out on newstands soon and also online. Here’s the link to read the story about my best friend:
https://countryroadsmagazine.com/art-and-culture/visual-performing-arts/gerald-deloach/

Jordan has a book!?!? coming out and i bet you’d love it if you love true crime and cajun country - she’s coming to Jackson on April 8th. Home of the Happy

Also this month Lauren Rhoades (who also has a book coming out soon - how do i know these amazing women?) accepted my proposal to write about how we got the new dog. Keep an eye open for that over at Rooted - https://rooted.substack.com/

A quick shout out to the retreat i got to take this past week. When i go traveling i am so used to quiet, i value that above all else when i stay somewhere. this was such a peaceful and restful stay, if you’re looking for a sweet spot (that’s near the dog friendly beach!) check out this lovely bungalow - the Bamboo Bungalow

Which reminded me of my friend Jen’s place in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. She’s one of the few remaining people in the world it seems like, who has an open heart that keeps room for a beautiful, expansive garden, and lots of rescue animals and well-adored chickens - her generosity and hospitality - i DARE you to name anyone better. It’s beyond words what fortune it was to get to stay at Bonne Terre. https://bonneterrelouisiana.com/

well he called at like 11:15 at night and he said turn on pbs! there is this singer that is so good and you know how i am about my music! and he hung up, so we did, and it was Brittany Howard - you know, from the Alabama Shakes. This is for my bad mama jamas, i hope if you need it you hear it, you have the power because i gave it to you,

and here’s another one for the girls, because you gotta reach way back to make it to today, im so glad i don’t know what to do, i woke up this morning and my dreams had done come true,