The Junk Thief Parade of Homes 2011

The Woodward Line

The Woodward Line pierced through the city that winter held in a grip as strong as that of a blacksmith.
Bowlers and workmen's more practical flap caps barely held in the cerebral heat until it danced down the street with ever seductive old man winter, swaggering and jingling ice cycles in his pocket like pieces of silver and wedding diamonds. Love always chases the next opportunity, just as metal razor clipping cling to the seductive magnet.
The audacity of silk top hats, dancing nervously above chattering, fluoride blazed teeth, anxious to return to their steam heated townhouses with inlaid floors built by immigrant Scandinavian hands, never to see a manicure but able to cut the perfect parquet.
These strangers shared that moment, one they saw disappearing as it happened, ice melting into mustard gas before freezing into a haze of atomic bombs that eventually warmed up as collateral damage before their memory floated away with the dust of two towers falling on the heads of their darting great-great-grandchildren who were christened with the middle names of these ancestors they had only seen in musty photo albums.

The Woodward Line disappears into the white abyss of memory from the dawn of the previous century, one of many lines slowly erased by expired hearts and unidentifiable relatives in photographs banished to the yard sale heap.

Ravishing Ruins

Friendatella dropped by the other day to see Bow, and we three went for a walk. Along our stroll, he pointed out his favorite houses in my neighborhood -- those rare decaying Victorians that look like they'd be covered with cobwebs inside and wacky old ladies peeking out through tattered curtains.

With news of single digit temperatures today in Detroit, I am reminded of how there has always been something oddly fascinating about that city to me. I've never been brave enough to drive or walk around through its various ruins but have longed to do more than just speed through when I have been there. This site gives a good sense of what is there, and today I would sort of like to be there.