jerseymurmurs

So many thoughts have been coursing through my pandemic-addled brain and I’ve missed recording them in my quarantine “Captain’s Log” (the artist Roni Horn said “I like the word ‘log’ as opposed to ‘diary; or ‘journal,’ I’m not telling you what I’m doing every day. But when you add all of these bits together, you get my sensibility”). So much has happened this past month — impeachment trials, weather events, Covid anniversaries, approved vaccines, caretaking challenges. ▪️

When my cousin visits from Texas she delights me by bringing whole branches from her Bay Leaf tree — leaves still attached; I pluck and store them in a plastic bag. Our grandfather was a Ship’s Captain. At one time he worked for the Southern Steamship Co. and did a regular run from Philadelphia down to Galveston, TX and back. Last week my cousin and much of her state were without power for days when a rare snowstorm and deep freeze surged down into the center of the country — into a Texas whose power infrastructure was not winterized while their Senator famously escaped to Cancun leaving his dog Snowflake behind. Like so much lately, truth is stranger than fiction. I made a pot of chili and splurged — putting three bay leaves in. I say to my mother, Where you going mum? “Crazy,” she answers, “Truly.”