Thick Thoughts, Solid Shoes

Altered Note to Future Self #10 (From Dynamite from Dreamsville) / 2018 / Mixed media on paper / Russell C. Smith

After stumbling out of a dream, hours went by in minutes and the whole world fit inside a coffee cup for a time. Thinking thick thoughts; wearing solid shoes. A skull full of wonderings and a heart loaded with half-moons and meanderings. You’re not sure how, but you’ve placed pens, envelopes, and a portable typewriter on a desk by the smudged window. A room with faded flower print curtains in a hotel from another time, just off Times Square. Let’s say your bus from Anywheresville, USA pulled into Port Authority two hours ago. Your heart’s thumping a hundred miles an hour, and you get the sense life altering events are waiting for you around every corner. Recalling shadowy faces from another lifetime. Nearby was the sound of water dripping down damp spray-painted hot water pipes. Back in your body, you’re sensing the vibrations of travel float up through the ceiling, and a half-smile forms below your nose. You lean over and your secret face recognizes itself in the looking glass. Face unshaven, hair unkempt. Not even ready to be sighted by a perfect stranger in an alleyway at nightfall. Next to the musty curtains, you pull a breath deeply into your lungs. Sitting in front of the machine, you watch words roll out of your mind and begin to appear on the page. And once again, you become a different you.