Where I Hang My Hat
It's cold and I wrap myself in the warmest blanket I own. I bought it from a vendor in North Korea. It has the picture of a wolf on the front of it. When I spent a year in Afghanistan I left it behind for my girls to use. They called it "the Daddy Blanket." Somewhere outside my window my city moves on, lit up and chilled as I am with only the night sky as it's blanket. My city.
Baltimore.
Growing up Baltimore was this almost mythical place, like walking into another state of being, where life moved much faster than I thought I ever wanted to move. This place had seemed both grand and intimidating. I've done some traveling in my time. I only ever left Maryland once for any length of time, when I went globe-trotting off learning to be a soldier. Can you believe that after all I have seen and done and been a part of, this place still seems grand? Not quite as intimidating maybe, but like the backdrop for a dark fairytale.
I've lived in Baltimore now over a year and a half. It still speaks to me in whispers, especially at night. Baltimore, my city, is part vampire after all. Just like me. We share similar powers. It's the home of my favorite place to eat, Annabel Lee's, named after the wife and poem by Edgar Allan Poe. Just like him I consider myself a writer. We even share the same birthday. I'm just better adjusted with my darkness and not nearly as talented as he. The city possesses my favorite football and baseball teams. I worked here years ago failing as a Life Insurance Salesman and Financial Planner. Failing because the company I worked for wanted you to be a shark and I was a Sea Turtle. Baltimore seems like a girlfriend I keep going back to after one break up or another.
Who knows how long I'll live in my city? Thousands of miles away my Island of O'ahu misses me. (It's my island, I own it.) So I definitely make things difficult placing MY city and MY island so far away from one another. I might leave Baltimore at some point. I might leave Maryland at some point and find another place to call home. Part of me is sadden by this. Not by change but because Maryland will always be my home and Baltimore will always feel like my personal study.
I have two novels in various stages of procrastination that take place in Baltimore. The city in both of these stories is as much a character as any of the living, breathing creatures found therein. It would not be right to leave before their stories are told, before what I have to say is said. I have one more short story to tell and I think I'll be getting back to my Dark Fairy-tales. I am after all still in my study. Wrapped in a blanket of night and as wired as the streetlights painting the pavement.
Here in my city. Inside my dark dream.
Home.
(c)Shawn J. Douglas 2010
Baltimore.
Growing up Baltimore was this almost mythical place, like walking into another state of being, where life moved much faster than I thought I ever wanted to move. This place had seemed both grand and intimidating. I've done some traveling in my time. I only ever left Maryland once for any length of time, when I went globe-trotting off learning to be a soldier. Can you believe that after all I have seen and done and been a part of, this place still seems grand? Not quite as intimidating maybe, but like the backdrop for a dark fairytale.
I've lived in Baltimore now over a year and a half. It still speaks to me in whispers, especially at night. Baltimore, my city, is part vampire after all. Just like me. We share similar powers. It's the home of my favorite place to eat, Annabel Lee's, named after the wife and poem by Edgar Allan Poe. Just like him I consider myself a writer. We even share the same birthday. I'm just better adjusted with my darkness and not nearly as talented as he. The city possesses my favorite football and baseball teams. I worked here years ago failing as a Life Insurance Salesman and Financial Planner. Failing because the company I worked for wanted you to be a shark and I was a Sea Turtle. Baltimore seems like a girlfriend I keep going back to after one break up or another.
Who knows how long I'll live in my city? Thousands of miles away my Island of O'ahu misses me. (It's my island, I own it.) So I definitely make things difficult placing MY city and MY island so far away from one another. I might leave Baltimore at some point. I might leave Maryland at some point and find another place to call home. Part of me is sadden by this. Not by change but because Maryland will always be my home and Baltimore will always feel like my personal study.
I have two novels in various stages of procrastination that take place in Baltimore. The city in both of these stories is as much a character as any of the living, breathing creatures found therein. It would not be right to leave before their stories are told, before what I have to say is said. I have one more short story to tell and I think I'll be getting back to my Dark Fairy-tales. I am after all still in my study. Wrapped in a blanket of night and as wired as the streetlights painting the pavement.
Here in my city. Inside my dark dream.
Home.
(c)Shawn J. Douglas 2010