February

SEATTLE Readers: I'll be reading at Neptune Coffee on the 18th with Suzanne Burns, Kevin Sampsell, and Travis Nichols.

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Shane Jones sent me a copy of his book Light Boxes. It is about a town of balloonists at war with the month of February. It's really, really good.

Someone should publish it.

This is a section from the book that I really like:

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Their balloon diminished to burning ribbons that snaked across the dirt, Thaddeus, Bianca, and Selah, ran inside their home and painted balloons everywhere possible. Holding a tray of colored paints, they pulled up the floorboards and painted rows of balloons onto the dusty oak. Bianca painted even smaller balloons on the bottoms of the tea cups. Behind the bathroom mirror, under the kitchen table, and on the inside cabinet doors, balloons were painted. And then Selah began painting a permanent and intricate intertwining of kites on Bianca’s hands and wrists, the tails extending up her forearms and ending just below her tiny shoulders.

—How long will February last, asked Bianca extending her arms out for her mother.

—Not as long as last time, said Thaddeus who was watching out the window at the falling snow. A hundred days at the most. I said not to worry.

—All done, said her mother. It will dry shortly and you will always have to wear long sleeves from now on. But you’ll never forget flight for as long as you live. You can wear beautiful dresses, that’s what you can wear.

Bianca studied her arms. The kites were yellow and orange with black tails. She waited and let the color settle into her skin.

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Thank you, Shane.

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Go read the new Lamination Colony.

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Watch this. I'm proud of it.