Melissa A. Bartell » 100 Words http://www.melissabartell.com Writerly Stuff Mon, 03 Aug 2009 05:23:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Aqueous http://www.melissabartell.com/2005/09/aqueous/ http://www.melissabartell.com/2005/09/aqueous/#comments Sun, 04 Sep 2005 05:19:41 +0000 Melissa http://www.melissabartell.com/?p=16 Sunday afternoon found me jumping into the deep end of the pool rather than mincing into the water, step by step from the shallows. Cool liquid enveloped me, and I was suddenly a mermaid, splashing and frolicking with innocent delight.

Green and blue foam “noodles,” the aquatic colors matching the stripes in my swimsuit, were my toys, alternately forming an ersatz raft, or a free-floating obstacle course.

I floated on breeze-created waves with my eyes closed, later opening them to sudden disorientation caused by the leafy canopy of the trees, and higher up, the beginnings of a mackerel sky.

]]> http://www.melissabartell.com/2005/09/aqueous/feed/ 0 Argiope http://www.melissabartell.com/2005/09/argiope/ http://www.melissabartell.com/2005/09/argiope/#comments Fri, 02 Sep 2005 05:17:12 +0000 Melissa http://www.melissabartell.com/?p=14 She arrived about a month ago, and set up home between two trees, near the fence. At first, she frightened me, but then I grew to appreciate her presence. What more appropriate back yard guest for a writer, than a writing spider?

Yesterday, she’d moved her web away from the shelter of the trees, perhaps to improve her tan, or catch a juicer form of insect.

Today, I walked out to see her, and the web is gone, but for a single strand. I am strangely bereft, and the yard seems lifeless. Birds and buzzing things don’t fill her gap.

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