whisper soft again, friend describe cold smoke, warm mother blue-glazed bowl of soup another cat in the window dusty fan-blown strands
ten whole days widen slits where tiny words swallowed or tap danced or overly devoured around wispy sunlight fingers
peeled painted eyelids open spiraled dragon breath rocks stacked with books green moss lingered two arms flung upward
toward you
*10/100: For the next 100 days, I’ll be writing and posting a poem every day. **All photos are mine, taken with an Olympus E-M1 MarkII and edited with Lightroom Classic.
one time i stood under a flowering pear tree in my wild backyard and thought, this is good. it was warm and i’d just finished nursing my baby girl. she heavy-slept in a sling on my freckled chest. her hair was red and my feet were bare.
one time i stood on a street in london in my doc martens and thought, this is good. it was warm and i’d just toured buckingham palace pretending i belonged. steaming tea, a double-decker bus. my dress was red and my socks were yellow.
one time i stood all alone in my choked bedroom— the air was hot, the bed unmade— a shadow stretched over drifts of laundry left to fold. my face was red, the pen denting my thumb, and i thought, is this good?
*5/100: For the next 100 days, I’ll be writing and posting a poem every day. **All photos are mine, taken with an Olympus E-M1 MarkII and edited with Lightroom Classic.
“What she needs are stories. Stories are a way to preserve one’s self. To be remembered. And to forget. Stories come in so many forms: in charcoal, and in song, in paintings, poems, films. And books. Books, she has found, are a way to live a thousand lives—or to find strength in a very long one.” —The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
For the month of April, my model was my dear friend Bonnie. I met her when she was just in high school and I’ve had the pleasure of watching her grow into a giving, talented, hard-working young woman. Bonnie is the kind of person who gathers others to her. She cultivates community, has a wonderful sense of humor, and is a fierce defender of kindness. Her friends call her a silly goose, which fits her, but she’s also the very thing Shakespeare talked about when he said “though she be but little, she is fierce.”
In addition to being a kind human, she’s a gifted editor. She whipped early drafts of my 52 shorts stories into shape, and recently edited her wife’s beautiful fantasy novel Wayward Magic. She’s currently studying to be a librarian. and so it was only natural for us to be around books. As it also happened to be National Library Week, we drove to the gorgeous Mill Valley Public Library. Tucked amongst redwoods, and brimming with golden light, it was the perfect setting for these photos.
Please leave Bonnie some love below and visit her fantastic IG page where she talks about all things books.
What makes you proud? Knowing that I could have grown into a much different person and yet I took the hardness and darkness in my life and turned it into kindness.
#4#5#6
What makes you feel brave? Knowing that there is a community of people that love me, support me and surround me. I’ll never be alone in anything.
#7#8#9
What gives you hope? Queer stories give me hope. Knowing that they’ll always be told and have been told for centuries. Queer joy fills me with so much hope everyday. ❤️
#10#11#12
I’d love to know if you think my photography skills are growing. With each session, my confidence behind the camera grows and I’m starting to really enjoy putting together galleries as a new form of storytelling. Stay tuned for lots more work to come.
Bridgette Tales 