Austin Window Reflections

I was in Austin Texas on a roaming minstrel vacation, soaking in the music and art, singing at open mics, and sharing experiences with others of like mind and heart. Breakfast at Micky Dees … Coffee with a sausage biscuit and egg. I sat down, back against a wall, and stared out of the side alley window. And just to the right of the window, I noticed an elderly couple sitting quietly at a table for two. His head was shiny with a ring of tufted cotton above his ears. His charcoal black eyes squinted through wiry brush eyebrows in the window glare. Deep lines grooved his leathery face, each a story of its own in the making of it. His chin waddle wagged with each clinch of his loosely fitting false teeth. His denim pants with rolled cuffs exposed his white cotton socks and neatly tied oxfords.
She sat there staring out the window with her pink plastic rimmed glasses. Her thinning hair was puffed up like cotton candy. Face powder caked her peach fuzz moustache. Her lipstick was slightly smeared from shaky application from an unsteady hand with knobby jointed fingers. Her breasts were flat and sagged to the navel under her cotton blouse. Her knee pants exposed traces of bulging veins. And bright red toenails accented her calloused toes that poked through the open sandals.
His wedding ring was worn thin. Her meager sized engagement diamond still glistened in the morning sunlight. They both had wrist watches on, but neither of them ever looked at them. They were sitting quietly at the table, talking more with gestures and looks than with words. He cupped his hand around his ear as she spoke the words I couldn’t hear, and he mouthed the words that she was saying. He chuckled out loud, and she had a smirky grin on her face. The English muffin sandwich was passed between them, neither seemed to be that hungry. He shared his water, she shared her coffee with a hand pass of the cup, and he accepted with a nod. It was as if they were exchanging spirits in the process. There was an air of peace, and they savored each precious moment together as they savored the coffee. When the coffee ran low, he pushed himself up from his chair and motioned for the cup. She slid it over to him, and with his hunched back and flat posterior, he shuffled over to the counter to get the cup refilled. Upon his return with the capped “to go” cup, she got up and started toward the door. She forgot her purse and had left it in the seat. He quietly picked it up on his way out.

Dan Bowlds

Muddy Ol' Water

Wrote a song and made a video honoring our hard working tow boat operators and crews on the rivers in our heartland. Without these folks, moving of vital goods to shipping ports and factories would be severely hampered.
My nephew, Kevin Bowlds, and Richard Clark and Steve Fulkerson of his band "King's Highway" played the fiddle, bass, and banjo on this, while I did the guitar and vocals.