Weary and wilted

In the course of my visit, I have now misplaced a shirt and shorts. Considering I came with extremely limited clothes this trip, and they seem to be disappearing at the rate of one item a day for the past two days, I could have difficulty being able to dress for the flight home by Saturday.

The trip is truly a mixture. I have greatly enjoyed being able to see my oldest daughter. That's been a blessing. I am however homesick- missing my wife tremendously, and beginning to feel a bit emotional already about the fact that when I leave, my youngest will be staying behind. So the emotions for the trip are a bit like taking a jar and putting the good and the bad together and shaking them up. What you get is pretty messy emotionally.

Writing has been difficult. Still a sampling of my journal from the last few days:

• These are not afterthoughts / That spill over the levee / But plateaus of articulation
• Things I wanted to say in deep cobalt blue
• Raining syllabic utterances
• His skin circumcised by a combination / Of sun and shifty motivations
• We saw in him all the signs / Of a man able to straddle / the Continental divide