patrickjegan

April 1, 2015

Next Stop: Easy Street

“Well, this is where I get off, Baby Blue. I got a cozy little spread about a dozen miles out-of-town.” “This don’t look like no town to me, Buzz. The flies have taken over the ticket booth in the hole you say is the station.” “I’m not a man for big words, Blue, but I…

March 29, 2015

A Chain Of Events Has No End

The judge cancelled the restraining order setting into motion a chain of events… I walked into my classroom on a September morning to meet my class for the first time. I looked around the room of faces, hands holding pencils, open notebooks and staring eyes. A chain of events was set into motion… One in…

March 26, 2015

The Birdcaged Candles of Litchfield County

I was at the cozy bar in Torrington, CT. My wife was in the next seat. Since I had been freezing all day, I chose a seat away from the door and the window. There might be a chilly breeze blowing through the closed window…after all, our hotel window had leaks as bad as a…

March 23, 2015

The Old Schoolmaster

You throw a pebble, a small boulder that you can barely pick up, or a grain of sand into a pool of water. If there is no wind, you can watch the ripples move out in perfect concentric circles, ever-widening. The tiny waves keep going until they reach an obstacle and they bounce off into…

March 17, 2015

Fabled Cuchlain

In the lobby of the General Post Office in Dublin is a bronze statue. It depicts an ancient Irish warrior, standing but slumped over in death. If you look closely, you can notice that he is really not standing…he is tied to a stake. A raven stands on his shoulder. The sculpture is by Oliver…

March 16, 2015

Arriving, Departing or Just Passing Through

I stood hard against the tiled wall and made room for the rush of human traffic trying to pass me. I was thinking about insanity and the blindness of powerful people to hold sacred something that once had beauty and class. Beauty and class are rare commodities these days. I was in the bowels of…

March 9, 2015

Don’t Cry For Me, Puerto Rico: My Final Postcard

If you want to use Google Earth to find me, just enter 18.44 N and 66.01 W. That’s me, sitting at the beach bar waiting for an order of nachos. I’ve licked my last stamp and stuck it to the corner of this postcard. I won’t be writing to you anymore–from this place. This is…

March 7, 2015

Postcard From The Bottom Of The Green Lagoon

I have only one thing to do and that’s to be the wave that I am and then sink back into the ocean. Sink back into the ocean. Sink back into the ocean. –Fiona Apple. Theme from “The Affair” I know where my body is at the moment. I’m sitting on the sandy floor…

March 5, 2015

Postcard From Condado Beach

There are times in life when a person has a particular need. Nothing else is enough. Only that one singular need. If I were lost, ten miles from Badwater, in the center of Death Valley, that need would be water. For me, in the bleak months of Winter ’15, that need is simply warmth. Warmth.…

March 3, 2015

Between Patience and Fortitude

Despite what my weather app informed me about this afternoon–that the temperature was heading toward the low 40’s, I’m still having the feeling that my wool jacket (more of a pea coat) is merely for show. The cold wind slices through me like a Triscut dips through Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic Hummus. I’m chilled…