Stormy Sunshine Clouds at the Bay 2014

Stormy Sunshine Clouds at the Bay 2014

Another Decade of Another Life

I was standing at the Phillips station in Rockport, waiting on Gloria to finish her shift, the two of us sharing breakfast snacks like we always did. Nothing fancy just the kind of small ritual that becomes the heartbeat of a friendship. The bay stretched out behind the palms, pretending to be calm.

A few minutes earlier, the sky had been clear.

Blue, open, harmless.

One of those Texas coast mornings where you think you’ve got time.

But the coast never promises anything.

By the time I lifted my Windows phone again, the whole sky had changed its mind. Storm clouds rolled in like a bruise spreading across the water the kind that mean get inside now. Rain on the Texas coast doesn’t fall; it pours like a waterfall someone forgot to turn off.

Three frames.

Same place.

Same morning.

Shot sometime in 2014, back when Gloria was still here and the sky still surprised us.

Poem: Stormy Sunshine Clouds

Stormy sunshine clouds at the bay,

where light pretends it isn’t leaving

and the wind whispers the truth first.

A bright road curves into morning,

soft as a promise you want to believe,

until the sky remembers its power.

One breath of blue,

one breath of warning,

one breath of water waiting to fall.

And there I stood

between sunshine and storm,

between then and now,

between the world I had

and the one I carry.

Stormy sunshine clouds at the bay,

teaching me again

how fast a moment can change

and how long a memory can stay.

Dedication

For Gloria,

my Rockport sister with a camera in her hand

and the coast in her blood.

You taught me to watch the sky,

to respect the storm,

and to catch the moment before it changes.

And for my other Rockport girlfriend,

gone too soon,

whose laughter still echoes across the bay

whenever the light breaks through the clouds.

Both of you left this world,

but not my memory.

Not my heart.

Not the shoreline we shared.

Three different truths.

That was Rockport with Gloria sunshine, storm, and everything in between. And somehow, all of it felt like her.