Apprehensions

1. The trees outside the Carl's Jr. this morning, their branches in relief against the cement colored sky, seemed to strain for joy.2. I pray on the way to my part-time job. I follow a set formula in which something like magic still clings. I wish it were otherwise. These prayers are my own, although part of an old faith is in them. Sometimes the prayers are lifeless. Sometimes I shudder at their intensity, although the words I say don't change.

3. I've walked the same way for decades and I still see some detail along the way that has been there all these years and that I've not seen before.

4. Puce is a color that's conventionally defined as a purplish brown. It's an indeterminate color. Some definitions offer other combinations as an alternative. Laughing, we used to refer to any color without a name as puce.

5. I thought for a while why the trees in front of the Carl's Jr. might be beautiful. Their thin branches, a little unleaved in October, curved up with enough symmetry. And the pieces of light sky and darkened leaf were chaotic enough.

The image on this page was taken by flickr user >_skynet. It is used under a Creative Commons License.