Two Watercolors from Oregon

Yes ol' darlin', Oregon is green, forever green, but there was a golden red glow in the deep November of those late afternoons before your leaving, before the warming, when we all flew cheap and never stayed long enough.

Pinatubo had just exploded.

You know my affection for vermilion.

Riding to the country house with Mary’s Peak transparent across the fields in the west, you had salmon in the hamper, red lettuce in paper towels, and before playing the board games I sang ‘Whiskey in the Jar’ for some unknown Irish reason, sock sliding with Yorgo on the butter oak floor.