If I could master any skill, the skill I wish I had was to be able to sing.
And math.
I wish I was better at math, and as you know math and music are related in a roundabout way.
But most of all, I wish I had a pretty singing voice.
It would have been nice to look back and have people say,
“Sure, Anita’s face look’s like a pile of dog sick- but boy can that girl sing. “
The Bourgeois Spouses from Cycle of Scenes of Living Skeletons Paolo Vincenzo Bonomini( 1757-1839
He told her
he was going to leave her so that he could be with his true soul mate.
She lowered her head She bit her lips so hard he could see the tears streaming from the corners of her eyes.
He put his hands on her shoulders, gently, ” you’re a good person, ” he said ” you deserve to be with someone who truly loves you”
When she looked up he was surprised maybe even shocked to see her smiling.
” You found a Soulmate?” she said laughing… ” God help us all if there is a second soul like yours floating around out there. For real. God Help Us All. “
When I was a kid I used lay in bed at night and wonder what happened just one minute before the Universe began.
Was it dead before it came to life and if it was dead, was it full of ghosts?
I used to wish I could have been there in that minute because I was sure there were ghosts- that the universe was just chock full of them until the big bang cleared them away like dry leaves in a wind storm.
Of course being curious about that minute before the Universe began, I also wondered what the Earth would look like one minute after it died and HOW it would die.
What the Earth get gobbled up by the Sun in one big bite? Would it be death by asteroid? Would the Moon crash into us for no reason at all? In that minute after Earth meets the Grim Reaper, would a billion upon billions ghosts from every living thing on Earth rise up and fly out into space and would they be telling themselves not to look back-
What would they see if they did?
I’d look back, I wouldn’t be able to help myself.
I wasn’t there when the Universe began and I doubt I will be here when the Earth and the Universe dies.
I’m sorry I missed the very beginning, and that I might miss the end and I’m sorry about that beccause I think it was a hell of a show.
The story I was told on this ghost tour, was that there was a body at the bottom of this well.
Instead of pulling the body up, it was left down there. The well was filled bentonite clay and unceremoniously capped. There it sat in an alley way surrounded by falling down buildings and sketchy store front. , not exactly a forgotten grave, but one that wasn’t acknowledged.
Then as the area was developed and gentrified, people started to say they say a woman wondering around the alley and if you saw her called out to her she would turn, open her mouth and lumps of chalk and clay would fall out onto her chest and chin. Her face was a ruin- it looked like melted wax and the left side of her head was gone.
Nobody of course really wanted to dig that well up, so they built a pretty fountain over it and filled it with plants. They had a funeral for the poor soul underneath the fountain, at the bottom of the well and some people say it soothed the spirt.
But she isn’t gone. People still see her sometimes and they hope against hope that she doesn’t turn around and look at them.
Photo AM Moscoso
This is a reflection pool at a cemetery.
The idea is, people visiting their loved ones sit on the granite benches and reflect on whatever they want to reflect upon.
Of course, you can sit there and reflect on your loved ones whether or not you have a pulse.
It’s in a cemetery after all.
Evergreen Washelli
Seattle, WA
Photo A.M. Moscoso
FOR RDP WEDNESDAY: FOUNTAIN