Shadows in the Rain by Peter Tandlund
Rolling tobacco for 6 bucks a pouch, 1 dollar pizza, bacon and cheese, mr boston, half smoked cigs, one glass cup, 20s sent over from family, pre paid 30 dollar piece of shittle for a phone, ancient kitchen tables, crumbling drywall and rusty tubs, trailing smokers on the sidewalk to get your nicotine fix, deep stained jeans, plastic wrap for a belt, doughnut for breakfast bagel for lunch pizza for dinner, mad dog 20 20. Winter struggles, summers good graces, bums on the street still begging you for change endless walking. Jumping the subway, asking for cigs, skipping the bill for a burger, nice days cold days rainy days.
Days pass slowly.
Window shopping roses for a long lost love, petting dogs wishing they were yours, sweating out nightmares that came true, bloated from eating chocolate alone, waking up and calling for water, waking up and realizing you’re far away, happy somewhere else. Rainy days of silence. Strange feelings of the past- happiness. Mistakes still being made. Sobriety lost in a rain storm.
Love A.
Her Two Cents
There are so many photos depicting rain: awe-inspiring rainstorms in stark natural locations, umbrellas left on glossy city streets, thoughtful looking men peering through blurry windows, women with calm smiles and water streaming from their hair… but in the end, I liked Peter Tandlund’s Shadows in the Rain as the image best capturing the essence of this piece from Western Massachusetts. Confusion with just enough detail to navigate, just enough emerging color to sense that grey rainy days may soon pass.
The photo is marvelous. Your words, their own poetry.
A friend of mine in Australia picked up her son early from school today. Sydney’s being hit with a torrential storm and damaging winds. That’s nature’s rain.
Life brings its own rain, too. If you’re lucky, the flicker of a good memory is enough to sustain your hope, and you realize navigation is possible, after all.