the quality of sand — Heather L Johnson

In Search of the Frightening and Beautiful

What Holds Us Together, series 3, no. 2. Graphite, pastel and cotton floss on paper. 2020 — What Holds Us Together, series 3, no. 2. Graphite, pastel and cotton floss on paper. 2020

There's something to be said for the quality of the sand when a coming storm kicks up - one that blows in fast, after it hasn't rained in a long time. Here in my ship channel neighborhood, the dust rises up from the train tracks - blazing fast, swirling tunnels of the stuff that scrapes the dead skin off bare legs and picks up all the inevitably scattered plastic grocery bags, making them dance in the air before taking them out of sight, out of mind.

The violence of the electricity in the sky is humbling. I live to be humbled. To be reminded that I'm just another animal, with nerve endings and delicate parts who's damned lucky to be alive.