Non-Fiction – Jessica Barratt

Coyote On The Highway

In the city, I used to look for it, and so I got by. The copse of trees at the end of a forgotten street. The cultivated flower gardens around the golf course. The tiny patch of grass that lived beside the parking lot outside my apartment window. Nature lived there. And when I lookedContinue reading “Coyote On The Highway”

Close Your Eyes And See

Rockface with tiny orange fungus growing on it

Having been raised by a projectionist, I tend to love cinema. In fact, he (my father) told me recently that all those movies we watched together growing up were his school. He wanted to be able to talk about film to the people who came to watch them, he said. So he studied them. WeContinue reading “Close Your Eyes And See”

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”