The Firefly and The Shadow

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Here Comes The Wrecking Crew. © 2025, Meri Aaron Walker, iPhoneArtGirl. Phoenix, OR. All rights reserved. 

The Americans: Heading Home For the Post-Election Holiday. © 2024, Meri Aaron Walker, iPhoneArtGirl. Phoenix, OR. All rights reserved. 

Clueless in the USA: For Nick. © 2024, Meri Aaron Walker, iPhoneArtGirl. Phoenix, OR. All rights reserved. 

How It Feels to Me. © 2024, Meri Aaron Walker, iPhoneArtGirl. Phoenix, OR. All rights reserved. 

Live Action Wrestling: Thumper the Terror and Killer Josh. © 2024, Meri Aaron Walker, iPhoneArtGirl. Phoenix, OR. All rights reserved. 

NativeCam, Vid2Photo, Photomator, Word Swag

Over the last two weeks, I’ve been watching my little boy, ‘Lil Josh, not just with my eyes, but sometimes with my iPhone. I’ve been deliberately not trying to make any photographs while I play with my tiny boyfriend and his new friends at our local dogpark over the course of the last three or four months. The utter joy of watching their play in real-time - and getting to know the other dog parents who are so committed to carefully socializing their dogs - has been profoundly nourishing for me.

But about two weeks ago, one of Josh’s best friends’ mothers grabbed some photographs while Josh and Debo were wrestling and sent them to me and… Oh dear… I started playing with the images in the way that I play with photographs to help me understand what’s going on in my life… And I’m getting happier by the day.

After I started playing with Debo’s Mom’s photos, I started to see that what’s going on in my life is that my tiny boyfriend and his canine and human friends have been gathering the both of us into a new tribe.

And in this new tribe, Lil’ Josh is a highly social participant. He’s participating by being a dog wrestler. All 13.75 pounds of him. And he’s not just wrestling with little dogs. He’s wrestling with bigger dogs. He no longer realizes that he’s a little dog. He’s just a dog. A dog who really loves all his friends and all his friends’ parents. And the way he shows them how much he loves them is to stretch up tall on the humans’ legs to make sure they see and feel him. And then he races and wrestles with their canines.

So this morning, in between rain showers, when Josh and I went up to the park so he could play with his friends and their parents, he and Thumper got into a juicy wrestle.

Oh, Are They Immigrants? I Didn’t Realize… © 2024, Meri Aaron Walker, iPhoneArtGirl. Phoenix, OR. All rights reserved.