The thing on my phone says it’ll be “feels like 113°” today in Mississippi. “Maggot Brain” segues into “If You Want Me to Stay” and I look at way the light comes in through the blinds, slotting itself across the couch.
New Orleans, Polaroid 600 (all photos 2021)
Last night I texted Tracy “I changed my sheets & mounted a towel rack on a Saturday night. WILD” and she responded “Welcome to adulthood!”
My backyard in deep July, Polaroid SX-70
I spend two days leisurely combing through The Democratic Forest. I want to re-edit it, leaving out nearly all of the European and Miami and oil rig photos—keeping one from each locale. I think about the ten volume set and wonder what it’s like, wonder what it would feel like in my hands.
Yemo, California, Polaroid SX-70
A friend texts me a photo from a courthouse in North Mississippi. There’s a wood-textured sign mounted on the wall. It reads “Please do not spit tobacco juice or throw cigarette butts in the water fountain.”
Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Polaroid 600
I keep trying to unpack things but look into different boxes and everything in them seems old or dumb and I just close the lid. Why do I have so many ratty paperbacks by Faulkner? When did I become obsessed with the Batman TV show Batmobile, since I have like 6 die-cast versions of it? There are 2 boxes of only old Polaroid cameras that I just put in a closet, then go back to a re-watch of 30 Rock (I’m on season 3).
Belhaven azaleas, Polaroid SX-70
I walk for hours through hardware stores looking for plants. I want a pretty hanging pot in the kitchen with a fern but I guess ferns are out of season for buying because I can’t find one. I get passed by a weaving Mercedes with the vanity tag “FUNDOUG.” I wonder if FUNDOUG has a fern hanging in his kitchen.
Greenwood Cemetery, Jackson, Polaroid SX-70
I watch a squirrel run up and down the limbs of a fig tree, raiding the unripe fruit from the bobbing branches like a pirate swinging on the ropes of a galleon’s topsail. I’m watching through a big window like it’s a TV show. Then I try to unpack another box. This one has a book that shows what the Beach Boys did on any given day. I wonder what in the world I need to keep this for, but then I look and see that on August 1 of ‘64 they were playing two shows in Sacramento. It’s all lighthearted kiddie music, “Little Honda” and “Fun Fun Fun.” Then you flip a few pages and two years later Pet Sounds is out and on August 3rd of ‘66 they started recording Smile. I decide to keep the book.
Amite County, Mississippi, at the Lynyrd Skynyrd monument, Polaroid 600
AS ALWAYS I am gorjusjxn on Instagram, and you can see more Polaroids and time travel at McCartyPolaroids.