Months before an earthquake shook the streets of Marrakesh into disarray in September of 2023, I hovered above its arid landscape in total awe. With about 20 others, high in the air from a basket about the length of my Toyota Camry, I watched the sun rise above the horizon–a dreamscape unlike anything I have ever experienced. Growing up in North St. Louis, Missouri in the 60s and 70s, a hot air balloon ride over Morocco was the very least of my dreams. At 61, I have lived far more than my mother, grandmother, or great-grandmother could have ever imagined, and I have out-lived my mother by twenty-years. In these moments I feel as though I am living for them all, showing them through my eyes, the things they never saw. Much of my efforts in living this life have been surviving the odds, taking what is good, and discarding the rest. The bones have pierced sharply, but there is good fish here. And it is plentiful.
SPITTING OUT BONES 