Tag Archives: Roanoke

The Piker Press publishes “An Ode to a Would-Be Swimmin’ Skink”

The Piker Press today published my humorous nature poem, “An Ode to a Would-Be Swimmin’ Skink!”  For those of you who are uninitiated, a skink is a little lightning-quick iridescent lizard common in the Southern United States.)  And they even ran the photo I submitted with the poem!  (I snapped a shot of the little fella off Shenandoah Avenue here in Roanoke, VA.)

You can find the poem and the photo right here.  Thanks, as always, to Managing Editor Sand Pilarski for allowing me to be a part of this wonderful community of readers, writers and artists.

Happy Monday!  🙂



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Lavender outside Virginian Station, Roanoke, VA

Update — I have been reliably informed that this is actually Russian sage, and not lavender.  My bad.

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Photo of Roanoke, VA by Bckdraft911, 2009

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Bckdraft911, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons

Here’s another picture of the demolition site between Salem and Campbell Avenues.

I just think it’s neat.  It’s weird looking to where the Campbell Court bus hub used to be and seeing an enormous empty space.

The city has a deal with developer to put a few things in the redesigned space, including apartments and stores.  You can read all about it here at The Roanoke Times.



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Newly vacant lot between Campbell and Salem Avenues, Roanoke, VA, July 2022

This is after the buildings facing Campbell Avenue (including the former Campbell Court bus station) were razed.  The latter two shots were taken from Salem Avenue, looking south.

“Raze” is a weird word. Its antonym is also its homophone (“raise”).



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Lavender Outside Virginian Station, Roanoke, VA

Intersection of Salem Avenue with Second Avenue, Roanoke, VA, July 2022

(Before Second Avenue becomes Gainsboro Road heading north at the overpass.)

I can’t emphasize enough what a quiet city this is.  What you see is what passes for a somewhat busy Tuesday morning.