Capitol City
Monday, September 22nd, 2008
All the corridors and windows in the cityscape open up onto the Capitol dome. Aglow in the tree branches, above the rooftops, it’s illuminated in an orange band around the inside center and from the outside with floodlights at each side, the solid white paint accentuating its purity, maybe even its patriotism, its history and symbolism.
Flanked on either side by American flags and both houses of government, it sits up high – the highest point except for two rusty smokestacks in the foreground (as seen from the south side.) Energy seems to radiate from atop this hill and its luminosity, but its really the streets that bear extra life around the Capitol. (more…)
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Tags: America, Travel
The paint flakes on the white-washed railing around the frontporch. A pair of flower baskets loaded with dirt and geraniums overflow – purple petals lie scattered on the slatted floor in the spaces between boards. Sometime in the night or perhaps the lazy day a spider has woven a web across the porch swing and as I look out on the parched August grass, I wonder if there is any view more American than this one.
Down the street past the stop sign’ a farmer with a potbelly unloads a tractor from the trailer he pulled behing the giant extended-cab truck parked in the street. He starts the engine, which pierces the soft afternoon rustling of leaves by the steady wind and drives it up the slanted driveway to an opwn garage door. He leaves it there and climbs back in the pick-up to the sounds of American flags beating in the wind. (more…)
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Tags: America, Free Writing, Suburbia
