Jonesberry

The word “Jonesberry” combines “Jonesville”(an actual small town in rural South Carolina) with

“Mayberry” (the Teevee Land home of Andy, Barnie, Opie, Aunt Bee, Floyd, Goober and the rest).

At first it was a term of endearment describing our visits to the little crossroads of a place where my wife, Crystal, was born and raised…

…But, eventually, it came to describe my home (a beach house, 11′ up on stilts, in a cow pasture) and a new “way of being” (Chicago kid turned beach bum ends up marooned among deer and turkeys).

It’s an odd scene:

the neighbor’s cow (#316, according to the yellow tag punched into its ear) drops by to nibble on my prized banana trees native to the mountains of Japan.

a black & white “dairy” cat plays soccer with a 9mm bullet –batting it all over the screened porch as I watch, drinking a Bloody Mary after breakfast.

each week, it seems, more parts fall off the big red pick up truck I bought from the salvage yard owned by a guy named “Bubble Gum” and I stick them back on as best I can.

and at night, resting in a hammock on the back porch as Crystal sleeps in her big bed with the pineapple carved posts, I listen to a ruckus of geese and dogs play out at the town reservoir (down across the bottom field and through the woods behind my house) trying to remember the sound of waves washing up beneath a tropical moon.

I’ve planted peach, apple, plum and fig trees (though I had never planted anything before) and have several hundred feet of vineyard cable going (though I’m a long ways from having enough grapes to call this place a vineyard).

There’s a big patch of blackberries and a small bit of blueberries. Plus a persimmon tree.

I still have my old beach bike (with wide seat and fat tires) and a couple of surfboards. I still wear the beat up sandals I’ve had for years.

But I no longer sail the big old sloop. 

No matter how often I notice a familiar freshness in the air, the ocean is far far away.

I watch a breeze roll across tall pasture grasses and yearn to tell the world.

And so I created this (my “message in a bottle”).