Many thanks to editor Alexandra Naughton over at Be About It Press for today’s publication, “Apricots.”

This one is very special to me, because it reminds me of Santa Fe, NM. I was there a July or so ago and stayed at a wonderful place, the Casa Culinaria. It is a beautiful property, and each guest stays in their own casita, and the only meal served is breakfast. Like: Cordon Bleu level.

One meal was so beautiful, I cried. I never had anyone cook such beautiful food. But the setting itself, an open-air courtyard with cafe tables set among a small grove of apricot trees, was extraordinary.

The apricots were at peak ripeness. They fell near constantly. Hardly one minute passed before the next. And they were put aside in baskets for making jam and preserves.

And I thought a lot about apricots, and how when I was growing up I was lucky to have a cold bowl of cereal for breakfast. We don’t get a lot of apricots on the east coast, because they are so fragile they don’t travel well. Peaches, yes. Nectarines, no stranger. But apricots were new to me at this shameless abundance.

I was also in a class, writing a novel over the course of the year, and one of our assignments was to find ideal cover art for it, and this image was one I loved best. There is something holy about this one, for sure. Its title is “But the Serpent Said,” and the artist = Chris Koelle. So I was thinking a lot about what we reach for, even when we are reaching blindly. I hadn’t thought about this illustration in some time, but I just visited the artist’s site and ordered a print of it I love it so much.

Apricots? they are delicious. And they are dangerous. Cyanide at the core. How untrue that should be of children.

So, Santa Fe and novel writing and fruit trees and God, and then I found an old spiral bound memo book and a small School Days photo-keepsake from way back.

It reminded me of how lonely I felt, some days, as a child. Falling falling falling.

I drafted this story as a Fibonacci form. It drifted from one side of the page to the other and back. But apricots don’t drift. They are delicate but heavy. Their little soft bodies make a sound. Better suited to prose. But the Fibonacci constraint does, well, it does winnow things down to their essence, as poetry is wont to do.

I think Alexandra Naughton is a gem of a literary citizen. She’s a beautiful writer, a busy mom, somehow finds time to be real and also be a publisher, and on top of all that, she is a great Zoom Reading host. I found out about the press when I had a free night at the end of August, and Twitter led me to a Be About It reading. I thought it might be a good place for one of my stories, everyone was intense about their work, and I appreciate that in a reader, and I was thrilled when she accepted this story of mine a couple months later.

Thank you for reading my story. Here is a link so you can jump on over, and enjoy the other marvelous works Alexandra publishes.

Thank you for visiting with me. As is said these days, I appreciate you.

Header image: Scott Kahn, “Reflecting in the Wilderness” 2004 Oil on Linen, 40 x 30″ Part of the Gallery Show “Nature of Being” curated by Marc Dennis and shown at Harper’s Chelsea 534, September 17 – October 24, 2026 Photo (c) A.E. Weisgerber

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