This is a picture, not taken, of a ordinary, everyday traffic situation: waiting for a light to turn green, when, out of the blue, the winds kick up and the skies darken as a blizzard of dead oak leaves starts swirling around my car, all tornado-like, to the point where I’m wondering if I should duck-and-cover until it blows away a few seconds later…

This is a picture, not taken, of two very different little twins: the girl being conscientious, saying hello to people and stepping out of the way of an employee mopping the floor, and the boy being rambunctious, running all over the floor and accidentally pushing a display case into people.

This is a picture, not taken, of a normal glance in the rear view mirror and seeing a woman dressed in a fur jacket with a stuffed toy hanging from her rear view mirror, the two looked so startlingly similar, that I wondered if I was in an alternate universe where people looked like their knickknacks.

This is a picture, not taken, of a group of young men, one in particular walking backwards rapidly with his arms wide open talking, bragging, or bantering it’s unclear. What is clear is that the old man he ran into is none to pleased and looks impotently in fustration, brushing his drink off of his shirt as the man keeps walking away…

This is a picture, not taken, of three protesters taking a break, their signs warning of global warming laying forgotten on the ground beside them while they stand in a tiny circle, smoking…

This is a picture, not taken, of signs along the interstate highway, brightly lit, for as bright as the dense foggy night will allow them, seemingly hovering in the air, as the fog obscures the posts, the effect is one of a constellation of advertising moons…

This is a picture, not taken, of a cat staring at me from my backyard porch, the said cat’s first ever appearance was notable enough for me to race around for a camera, but, upon returning, the feline was nowhere to be found, and has now moved into the realms of ninja-cathood and will affect many future half-remembered dreams to come…

This is a picture, taken, of a pie’s potential, before a taste is taken, all of its attributes tantalizingly dancing around, many scenarios battling for supremacy, the chance that it could fall short in flavor, texture, or taste, opposed to the possibility that it could make someone’s day unexpectedly, all these and many more balanced precariously on a knife’s edge as it plunges down towards cleaving the first slice…

This is a picture, not taken, while driving on a downward sloping interstate highway, of 3 vehicles traveling at a high rate of speed with their hazard blinkers on,weaving in and out of traffic,at the same time as others periodically changing lanes,making the highway field look like the red and yellow lights of a Christmas tree and the cars look like Pachinko balls bouncing back and forth as they fall towards Austin…

This is a picture, not taken, of a woman carrying around a small, black poodle like a football, nestled snugly in her arm, the dog looking around as people unknowingly jostled into it, more intent on shopping than the welfare of an innocent creature…