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Montgomery, Alabama. June 2011.

In Montgomery you stay in a La Quinta by the highway

and venture downtown when you have the time.

It is 100 degrees outside.

Physically, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot to the city

but they do have some great monuments

the type your Northern upbringing did not prepare you for.

Thus, you are sweating constantly but fascinated consistently.

In a patch of shade by the capital you lie down with your camera next to your head

close your eyes

you're a long way from anything and you're in Alabama for a good while

Birmingham held confusion, heat, elevators, and a desperate escape to a nearby forest

a forest where you were taunted by hearts knifed into tree trunks

where the cicadas or whatever drowned out your thoughts

it was beautiful regardless.

Here it's all highways and plazas and emptiness

some dead leaves at the feet of a statue. Sweat.

You've just turned 25 and the best part of the week

was watching the raindrops run up the windshield as you flew down the highway.

You're headed to Mobile in a few days, Mobile's on the coast.

That can't be a bad thing, no way.