...But back to the busy kitchen with dad and his drawers down getting busy with mom. Funny what the hills can do to a man talking to no one but squirrels for a week.* I will spare you most of the gory details, only to add that dad showed an alarming inability to reacclimate himself to civilisation, namely the house in Portland, Oregon and the polish-tinged love nest mom had created. Take the charts, for an example. Atop Billboard at the time was Al Green’s Let's Stay Together, a top quality tune and ideal for taking that special someone to that next- level place. However in dad's attempt to serenade mom with Reverend Al, he sounded like a grey digger squirrel. Nevertheless I am proof that it worked — most dismal conception ever. Their long marriage is proof also. Fifty two years is nothing to squirrel at.

- from a reading last Saturday at NAU

*as the story goes dad was hunting prior to my conception. He came home and Mom seduced him with beer-battered polish sausages in the kitchen. 

List of credits: speech bubbles by toby dutton, all other instruments boy moritz