The shelf

A look at the Walk Season

Twelve letters, in the order I wrote them. This is the reading. The letter stays free.

1. Letter 01

   The park, from the car

   I was in the car. March, bare trees, the stone entrance sitting on the median like it had been waiting. Forest Park opened in 1876. The 1904 Fair reshaped a lot of what I was looking at. I grew up around this park. This letter starts in the driver's seat.

2. Letter 02

   The Fair's ground

   St. Louis was founded on 15 February 1764. The birthday is traditionally kept on 14 February. I am not here to correct the party. I am walking the ground the 1904 Fair used. The Art Museum building is still here. So is the Flight Cage. That is enough history for one afternoon.

3. Letter 03

   The Amoco sign

   The sign is tall, red and white and blue, on a pole over an intersection. Clear sky. I took it from the car in Saint Louis in March 2024. It is a picture. I am not asking anyone else to carry it as a symbol.

4. Letter 04

   The Arch, as a photograph

   Everyone shoots the Arch wrong. I include myself. The tip is the easy picture. The better frame is the one you can stand in, with the river doing half the work. The clip is still coming. The wall already says gateway, river, and the Lou.

5. Letter 05

   Honey

   Honey Butter Biscuit is small, tan, and scruffy, and she does not care what a terrier mix is supposed to look like. A leash. Green grass. She came through the door. The others are on the rescues page, and they are not a set.

6. Letter 06

   The ones I took in

   One dark dog on the wood floor, looking up. One curly coat by the door. A black and white cat stretched on a blanket. Majic was the white poodle mix, father of both of Honey's litters, and he left with the puppies. The pictures are mine. I do not caption the mark on my arm.

7. Letter 07

   The city's papers

   Post-Dispatch. St. Louis American. The Argus. The Riverfront Times, 1977 until it folded in 2024. The Beacon, into St. Louis Public Radio in 2013. An exposition leader later served as a U.S. ambassador, and a sports field carries his name. I am not inventing a name the page does not carry.

8. Letter 08

   A building that came down

   The Workhouse was the Medium Security Institution. Demolition began on 18 March 2025. It was demolished in May 2025. Cody v. City of St. Louis: preliminary approval in February 2026, final approval on 18 August 2026, the case is closed. The City denied wrongdoing and liability. If you think you were in that class, read the official settlement site. This letter is not advice.

9. Letter 09

   The census line

   In 2013 the municipal courts of St. Louis City and County collected about $61.2 million in fines and fees, though the two held only about 22% of the state's residents (Better Together, 2014; U.S. Census). Behind that sentence the check is 22.0 percent in the 2010 census and 21.8 percent in the 2013 estimate. The public line stays the short one.

10. Letter 10

    The wall

    Rage Against the Machine, four clips on one public post. Huey, and Kinloch, the first incorporated Black city in Missouri. A graffiti wall. Cardinals merch and the line that I am from the Lou and I am proud. Memorabilia. Not a docket. The clips on the wall are the shorter files. The long copies are kept off the public bundle.

11. Letter 11

    The piece I'm rewriting

    There was a longer piece here, a cinematic one. I've taken it down to write it again in my own words, with only what's mine to tell. The twenty-second reel of my own pictures stays.

12. Letter 12

    The letter that stays free

    These twelve letters are the file called The Walk Season. The letter stays free. You can keep reading it on Substack without buying this file. A list price is not a card charge. This page does not take a payment.