In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • Huddle Brothers; Ivanhoe, Virginia; Circa 1963
  • David Huddle (bio)

Click for larger view
View full resolution
Figure 1.

The Huddle Brothers (Charles, David, and Bill), Ivanhoe, Virginia, circa 1963, courtesy of the author.

Stiffly posed before the forsythia bush, they wear coats, ties, and bemused faces, as if their mother's just called them from the porch, "You boys hold your shoulders back and stand up straight."

Here is where they played three thousand croquet games, some that lasted well beyond twilight and on into such summer darkness as arouses a yard full of lightning bugs. [End Page 130]

No mallets or wickets are visible here— this day looks to be a solemn occasion. These young men are becoming acquainted with time's optical illusion: we think

we stand in the vivid color of here and now and view the past as drab black and white, whereas the truth is—it's our future that's the off-center, badly-focused grayscale,

the day coming when someone picks up a snapshot and says, just before tossing it to oblivion, "My god, who are these quaint people?"

Charles Richard Huddle, III, named for his father and grandfather; William Royal Huddle, named for Uncle Bill from California;

and David Ross Huddle, named for great-grandmother Katherine Ross whose face he never saw. These names I write on a morning of blowing snow in Vermont.

David Huddle

David Huddle grew up in Ivanhoe, Virginia, and has lived in Vermont since 1971. He is the author of fifteen books of poetry, fiction, and essays, including The Story of a Million Years, La Tour Dreams of the Wolf Girl, Summer Lake: New & Selected Poems, and Grayscale.

...

pdf

Share