Most of America’s regional gothics boil down to being scared of the emptiness of our wilderness, the crimes of our past, and the omnipotence of our God.
Sunsets more brilliant than anywhere else in the world.
Lightning storms that put the fear of the gods in your heart and fire in your soul.
Saying hello to the lizards on your front porch.
Tumbleweeds.
Coyote eyes glistening in headlights and knowing it’s time to turn back.
Old tribal legends told around a campfire that your rational mind says can’t be real, but deep down in your heart you know they are.
Flash floods that kill.
The overwhelming soothingness of creosote smell.
Cold mornings when snow caps the mountains and clouds hang too low.
Hawks sitting on lampposts just before the lights come on.
Abandoned hogans and gas stations.
Sandstone in more colors than you ever imagined could be possible.
Bats.
The constant, oppressive, awesome, comforting, devastating reminder that this desert mother could kill you in a moment and it is only by chance and willpower that we survive here.
“i would kiss you to mac demarco all day if i could and i would have your hands on my hips if you would and i would sit at your feet and listen to you sing if that’s what you’d like
and i would watch your hands as they move along your guitars neck
and i would dream about how they’ll be on mine next curving around it as you pull my hair
you’d have me gasping for air and i would bight my lips
at the sight of yours
and i would imagine the taste
and beg the sky to let it live in my mouth
because i’d be high all day
on your saliva and the smell of you and i would quit smoking just so you could memorize the taste of my tongue instead of the nicotine i’m so addicted to.
i would rather it be you, i would rather it be you.”
Concept: I live in a tiny cabin in the woods. I dry my laundry on a clothes line. I wake with the sun, stay up late reading and nap during the afternoon in a hammock. I have a garden full of flowers, herbs, vegetables and berries. I go on picnics regularly by a nearby river. I rarely need to leave my beautiful home tucked away in the forest.
