Catching up with Arnold the Ant

I went for a walk with my friend Arnold the Ant. It was a beautiful day. We enjoyed strolling in the sun as we caught up on each other’s lives.

Arnold the Ant said, “I left the ant colony to strike out on my own. I’ve been doing quite well. Yesterday I found an entire loaf of bread. And the great thing was I didn’t have to share it with anyone.”

I said, “That’s some good luck you have going there. I’m so glad you left that colony. All you ever did was complain about how they mistreated you.”

Arnold the Ant said, “How about you? What’s going on with your collecting of the color blue?”

I said, “So far this week I’ve found 32 blue items. That makes 1,267 blue items that I’ve found this year, and it’s only February.

Arnold the Ant said, “Wow, Brooks, congratulations!”

I said, “Thanks, Arnold!

It’s me, a door

Hi. It’s me. A door.

I don’t have a name. I feel like being a door is enough.

When I meet someone and they tell me their name, I nod quietly. They’ll often ask my name. I say, “It’s door.”

Sometimes they’ll say, “Dohr?”

I’ll say, “No, door.”

I’m not trying to make a point. For me it sums it all up. I open. I close. I keep out the elements and unwanted guests.

I used to be a tree. Back then when someone asked my name, I said, “tree.” Sometimes they’d say, “Trey?”

I’d say, “No, tree.”

Arguing with a star

I laid out in my backyard and looked up at the stars.

The stars were twinkling. I wished I could twinkle. I felt depressed.

A star waved one of its rays and yelled, “Hey, cut that out!!”

I said, “What do you mean?”

The star said, “You know, feeling all sad because you think we got it better.”

I said, “But you do, don’t you?”

The star said, “It depends on the day.”

I said, “What do you mean?”

The star said, “For instance, last night it was all cloudy. All the shining work I did was for naught. I might as well have not even have tried.”

I said, “I don’t understand, why did you try shining if you could see that no one would notice?”

The star said, “Because I’m a work-a-holic. One day it will drive me into my grave.”

I said, “Your death is called a Supernova. It’s one of the most beautiful and brilliant occurrences in space.”

The star said, “Oh. Never mind then.”

Getting to know Fredrick the lightening bolt

I was walking out in a field in the rainstorm when it started to thunder.

I’m generally happy-go-lucky, so I didn’t worry about getting struck by lightening. But then this big bolt of lightening struck out from a cloud and was headed my way.

When the bolt was a few feet from my head, I asked, “Hey, what’s your name?”

The bolt stopped and said, “Oh, it’s Fredrick.”

I asked why it said, “Oh.”

Fredrick the bolt of lightening said, “It’s just that no one ever asks.”

I said that I was genuinely interested. I had never meet a bolt of lightening before.

I told it my name. We talked a good long hour. The entire time Fredrick the lightening bolt hovered in the air above me.

Finally, Fredrick said, “You know, I need to complete my journey into the ground or I’m gonna get in trouble. Would you mind if I travel through you in order to do my job?”

I asked if that meant I would get electrocuted.

Fredrick the lightening bolt said, “Not if you think about lavender.”

So I did. And he was right.

Now I know

I was playing guitar on stage when I thought about you.

I thought, “I wonder what you’re doing right now?”

I didn’t know. So I paused mid-song. A minute went by. I still couldn’t think of what you were doing.

I set down my guitar, left the stage, and walked out of the club. I walked for hours. And then more hours.

I walked along the freeway for a while. Then across a field.

And then I began to walk across a bridge. Halfway across, I found you sitting on the edge of the bridge, fishing. You looked up startled. I apologized for the startling, walked back to the club, got on stage, picked up my guitar, and finished the song.