Author: Paul Duane

Brave Like David

Coming Soon She hadn’t even planned to feel anything that day. Hair up. Little black sundress. No bra because, why?   The fabric was soft enough to forgive her. No panties… why? She was proud of what she had.  If the 79 degree breeze was going to be the only thing that saw all of […]

The Ballad of Kevin DuPont

Welcome to the Darkroom: In my circle of photographers, we don’t talk about cameras, or lenses, or even Photoshop. We talk about life. Photography is about witness.  It solves an ancient question about the human condition: is any of this real? Making pictures is the act of me seeing you… ….and then you seeing me […]

Who Do You Become

COMING SOON Her mom wants soup for dinner tonight.  Not just any soup – a very particular brand of frozen broccoli cheese soup.  “Tell me you are 78 without telling me you are 78, mom,” she teased.  She had been staying with her mom for several weeks.  Part customary, part nursing her mother back to health, part […]

A Citizen’s Guide To De-Flocking Your Neighborhood

“One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” – Martin Luther King Jr. Preface Like ridding your back yard of wasps – you can swat them one at a time, or you can locate the nest and destroy them all in one fell swoop.  Swatting sucks. It’s slow, you get stung sometimes, and they […]

Rules For AI in Creative Work

When Lewis Carroll wrote *Alice in Wonderland*, he was not trying to trick you into believing that somewhere in England, a talking cat was dispensing Zen-like wisdom to passersby.
The Cheshire Cat was a vehicle for the wisdom.
When the love of your life cheated on you during your sophomore year of college and said, “They’re just a friend,” they were trying to get you to distrust what you were seeing with your own eyes.

Pink Suitcase

“What’s waiting for you in Tucson?” 

Julie proceeds to explain her life: “I teach tennis, it’s my passion. My husband is in finance, he’s always gone, but I keep busy running my two daughters around to ballet and track practice.”

Her name isn’t Julie, to her, but it is to me. All women who live like this are named Julie. 

“What about you?”

“I work in grey market pharmaceuticals”

“I’m a special adviser to the Swiss Consulate in Chicago”

“I’m an adult film actor”

“I teach 3rd grade”

I ponder the possibilities. 

Hotel Casi

She imagines him sitting in the club chair in the corner. 
She sips more wine. 
She caresses her legs again. Do you like that, Jeff? 
Warmth rushes through her body. 
Do you want to see more, Jeff?