Salt, Ink, & Soul
Writing on food, family, and identity
“I write so that our food, our struggles, and our stories are never forgotten, but carried forward as legacy.”
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Felix the Fox Collection
Gentle adventures from the Whispering Woods — stories of courage, friendship, and resilience for children, and for the adults who read beside them.
Latest Post
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“Smoke and Silence: A Juneteenth Reflection”
They said we were free. They said June 19, 1865, was the day we finally heard it out loud—that we were no longer property, no longer counted like cattle or taxed like tobacco. Two years late, but freedom, they said. They say. But what they don’t say—what’s often left in the silence between fireworks and
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“The Weight Beneath the Mask: On Patience, Rage, and the Quiet War for Empathy”
Kyle J. Hayes examines the quiet emotional labor involved in being a patient, empathetic, and composed Black man in America. Beneath the calm exterior lies a generational weight of suppressed rage and unacknowledged truth. This is not about weakness—this is about survival with your soul intact.
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When the Earth Trembles and the Sky Weeps
There are moments in a man’s life when his words feel like a betrayal. This is one of them. Because anything I write will not do justice to the raw wound stretching across Texas and New Mexico. No sentence—no matter how well-shaped—can describe the homes washed away, or the destruction left by Floodwaters. This is
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“The Disappearance and the Dreamers: A Return to Small Town America”
I could start this in a few ways. I could tell you about the beauty of small-town America—how it smells like earth after rain, how it feels like old denim, soft at the edges and worn in all the right places. I could paint a picture of local parades, gas stations where they know your
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“Fireworks, Smoke, and Silence: Reflections on the Fourth of July”
I remember the Fourth of July not as a lesson in civics, but as smoke thick in the backyard, children running with sparklers and paper plates bending under ribs and deviled eggs. I remember laughter louder than the cheap boom of fireworks we lit off in the alley. We didn’t talk about the Declaration or
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“Sugar, Memory & Mercy at Largomarcino’s”
A man who’s tasted disappointment in the places that once defined him learns to guard his nostalgia like a brittle heirloom. After Happy Joe’s went corporate cold, I flew home to Albuquerque, full of disappointment and regret. But the Quad Cities still keeps a few sanctuaries, and chief among them is Largomarcino’s—the century-old candy counter where
Salt,Ink, & Soul 