The fat white moths that sprout from elm span worms are fluttering in their seemingly-senseless circles. It's hard to believe that they actually successfully breed, given the haphazard, directionless gyres they gimbal.
Nights colder now, and the neighbour is stripping clapboard off his house. Underneath, the tarpaper is ragged and torn, and the boards are rough and nailed on unevenly. The new ranges of clapboard are tan, and perfectly-spaced.
August afternoon, and the grass here is yellow canes moving in one easy sweep with the wind. Nights are already cold, and the stars have started the diamond glint that says fall is coming. There is spruce smoke on the wind, and it is a familiar smell indeed.
is a writer whose first collection of short stories, The Hour of Bad Decisions, was nominated for numerous awards including, most notably, the longlist for the 2006 Giller Prize and the shortlist for the 2006 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. The editor of the St. John’s Telegram in Newfoundland, his columns and editorials appear in newspapers
across Canada.