Non-Fiction – Jessica Barratt

Hello, Lupin

When you take a prairie girl to the mountains, her eyes will grow wide. The beauty is big. You don’t have to look for it. Her breath will catch at every corner, every tree, every snow-summit. Yet when you take a mountain man to the prairie, his eyes will dim. Big sky, big land, butContinue reading “Hello, Lupin”

The List

flowers and stems on a table top close up

“If you won’t smile, I’ll take you out back behind the autobarn and make you smile.”

It is 8AM. I’m at my desk and Wes the mechanic is just walking by with his coffee. I stare hard at the screen, checking emails.

Tearing Holes in the Tapestry

Some lives are meant only to tear holes in the tapestry. Yet someone once told me that the world is also full of menders, gently pulling broken threads back into place. And though there are times when I can only see the holes, there are others times when I can see them: The Menders, quietlyContinue reading “Tearing Holes in the Tapestry”

Sometimes I Disappear

close up of the dividing lines on a highway

I’ll watch a bird, and a week goes by. I’ll bask in the sun and find a month already gone. But I’ve always been here; it’s time that’s tricky. It’s time that spins past, so fast I can’t see. It’s time that moves, while I’m standing still. Then I look to my parents’ faces. IContinue reading “Sometimes I Disappear”

Soup’s On

We tell our truest stories when soup’s on. When the bay leaves do their thing (whatever it is), we reach into our deepest pockets and empty them all the way out. We’ve had enough time to stew, and so has the soup. It’s the warmth of it all, probably. And the waiting, because the longerContinue reading “Soup’s On”