LIFE OF JAMES MARS,
A SLAVE BORN AND SOLD IN CONNECTICUT.
WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.
HARTFORD:
PRESS OF CASE, LOCKWOOD & COMPANY.
1869. Continue reading Life of James Mars
Tag Archives: Connecticut Setting
Pastel in Gray
Pastel in Gray
by Martha Linsley Spencer
Translucent sky,
softer than mother-of-pearl
it gleams and grays
over the city,
over the river,
above the bridge ——
Red, like a ruby
hangs the trellised-star
of radio.
Picked with golden-lighted windows,
gray bulk of stone on stone
merges into gray
without a sharpened line,
Where the Traveler’s Tower
lifts its pinnacled height
into the luminous dusk
of the gray October twilight.
“S.L.M”
Cultivo
Cultivo
by Luisa Caycedo-Kimura
once mourning doves made me think
of graveyards
today they peck at weed seeds
clean my land
the oldest on record lived 30 years and 4 months
from the time it was tagged
until it was shot
how many mates did it mourn
American toads breed
at the neighbor’s pond
I wring laundry to hang on a clothesline
mostly black
when I was eight
a man trapped me in the stairwell
to our New York apartment
the note from his pocket loose-leaf cutout
blue ink print said I was beautiful
a scalpel in his pocket
how many would die
in a war without weapons
I was born in the middle
of an Andean hurricane the first time
I saw mamá her blue eyes
reflected green from the flame
of a candle the last time in Florida
her eyes were shut
yesterday Aaron and I planned
a garden for our new Connecticut home
asparagus and blueberries can’t be harvested
for two years
seeds must avoid hickory taproots
cilantro has to be direct seeded
doesn’t like to be moved
my older sister bought her first house
after med school
lived there twenty years
before renting it out I’ve moved
twenty times from rental to rental
clouds dissipate on our ridge
we buy spades trowels
pruners window sheers
fog on the trees lingers
coats the open grass
droplets vaporize burn the fog
how does one quench an instinct
to bolt
Copyright 2021 Luisa Caycedo-Kimura From All Were Limones (The Word Works, 2025); originally published in Shennandoah, Spring 2021 Used by permission of the author.
A Cup of Coffee
A Cup of Coffee
by Bessy Reyna
“Watch me!” I Tell Rob,
the lovely dark-haired friend
who has joined me for lunch
“Watch me, I’ll have to pretend
I don’t know that the coffee is a gift from him.”
We dance the tango
Ricardo, the Argentinian man,
is so happy to see me.
It’s been so long since I had lunch
at this small place
hidden on the second floor of an old building
Rob and I sit by the window
talking about books and watching
the people below us
as they stroll on Pratt Street.
Ricardo whispers to me in a voice
with the cadence of the pampas,
¿Querés un café? Do you want a cup of coffee?
I know I shouldn’t
it would be one too-many for the day,
but I can taste the offer
the I-want-to-give-you-something
because-I-am-so-happy-to-see-you!
bursting behind the smile
we dance the tango
“Watch me” I say to Rob,
I now have to pretend
that I want to pay for the coffee
and he will refuse to take the money.
The proper behavior
the warmth, generosity,
the nostalgia that engulfs me now
In how many restaurants can you get free coffee
just because the owner is happy to see you?
A native language coming back
to rescue me
transforming me
transporting me
At lunch, we danced the tango.
I say goodbye to Rob,
turn and give Ricardo gracias por el café
before I descend the narrow wooden stairs
that return me to
another culture my brave new world.
Around the corner
a homeless man awaits
“Can I have a dime for a cup of coffee?” he asks
His voice startles me,
I smile
“Come with me and I’ll buy you a coffee”
I tell him, pointing at the
“COFFEE AND PASTRIES” sign a few feet away
“No! Not from there” he shouts annoyed
“From Dunkin Donuts!!”
Of course, he does not want a cup of coffee
I place some quarters in his extended hand
and walk away smiling
dancing the tango
having paid for my coffee after all.
Previously published in She Remembers by Bessy Reyna, Andrew Mountain Press. 1997.
Used by permission of the author.
Ocean Vuong, “Hartfordian”
Listen to Ocean Vuong talk about Hartford and Literature on “Shelf Talker,” an audio file from CT Museum’s Connecticut’s Bookshelf exhibit, 2024. Continue reading Ocean Vuong, “Hartfordian”
The River of Rivers in Connecticut
The river of rivers in Connecticut is both the Connecticut River that flows through Hartford and the invisible river of life that flows endlessly through all living things. Haddam is a town on the Connecticut River. The town of Farmington is located on the Farmington River, a tributary of the Connecticut River. Continue reading The River of Rivers in Connecticut
from Horseless Carriage Days
Chapter VII of Percy Maxim’s memoir Horseless Carriage Days recounts Maxim’s role in the pioneering of the automobile, particularly:
pioneer days between the years 1893 and 1901, when a ride out into the country in a horseless carriage was an adventure; when that temperamental machine, the gasoline engine, was being tamed; when there were no good roads, no road signs, no road maps, no filling stations; when gasoline had to be purchased either in paint shops before dark or in drug stores; when there were no registration plates, no operator’s licenses, no protection against wind, rain, and cold; and when every horse on the road stood upon his hind legs and made a scene. (Maxim 1937, xi) Continue reading from Horseless Carriage Days
from Masters of Illusion
Masters of Illusion (1994) was Mary-Ann Tirone Smith’s fourth novel. It is a fictional account of the Hartford Circus Fire of 1944 and the decades following. The protagonist and the fire arrive on the first page, and then there’s a life-changing meeting on an Old Saybrook beach. Continue reading from Masters of Illusion
from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Clemens’s fascination with English history developed with his visits to the country and his research for The Prince and the Pauper (1881), a tale of a royal and a commoner changing places so each could find out what he had been envying. He was fascinated by the Elizabethan period and its wholesome frankness about sex and bodily functions, which he celebrated in a short obscene work called 1601: Conversation as it Was by the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors. The book was concealed to all but select male friends, but is now freely readable on the Internet. Continue reading from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Country Fire
“Country Fire,” first published in The New Yorker (October 1, 1938), is an event-driven short story that seems to prefigure Gill’s later interest in architecture and preservation as well as his personal reckoning with a New York/Connecticut divide. While there are many people in the story, the only character that is developed is the community of this Connecticut country town, in amalgamation. If there is an antagonist other than the fire, it is the New Yorkers and the architect lurking in the outskirts of the town’s consciousness. Continue reading Country Fire