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Night Watchmen

AMHERST The line outside Craig’s Place at 434 North Pleasant St in Amherst, the only homeless shelter in Amherst, starts to form around 9:00 p.m.. Waiting in queue, the group of mostly men talk and smoke cigarettes as they wait, more people arrive in ones and twos, emerging out of the darkness to be painted by floodlights. The...

Gaps between shelters and services surface daily.

NORTHAMPTON On a busy afternoon at Haymarket Cafe in the heart of downtown Northampton Tricia McDonough, 26 from Easthampton MA and a barista makes the call to the Northampton Police Department because someone has locked themselves in a bathroom and seems to be unresponsive. The problem first surfaced when several customers asked...

The Relic, part 1, The Forest

The Relic

“Let’s go see what’s up here,” she said, motioning up a dirt path. My friend Laura and I are out taking photos of the land I have just moved to, 100 acres of mixed wood forest in rural Massachusetts. Autumn is full bloom all around us. Gold and red carpet the ground and cling to the tops of branches as if to set...

Writer
Christopher J. Sparks