Tonight it rained, and while she didn’t look a day older, my sister turned a calendar year over, welcoming a new number to the sum symbol of her years, and she still acted the same, strong and confident and concerned and striving, happy and thoughtful and mostly content. The cats yawned when I came...
Read more →I cut down the tree, on down by the river, I cut down the tree over the swimming hole. I cut down the tree after waiting for hours for a word of reprieve from deep down in my soul. Back when, the tree was the place that I’d run to, a place full of...
Read more →The soft hermit crabs have fabulous abs for clutching a shell to their guts One grows over time and repeatedly finds it needs a new shell for its butt It’s a dangerous place if the crab leaves its case for an extended amount of time Its body is meaty and its neighbors are greedy-...
Read more →Today, when I blinked, a fire fell, a cataclysmic flash of fear circled the earth and flattened fields, and brushed the broad plains red and black. The globe pitched sideways, every words became gobble, and my neighbors, glassy-eyed and guarded, fed on the hollow half-truths of hate and hurt. Sweep, Spirit, flare of Mercy,...
Read more →When the sun began diving, we met on the road. The lane was uneven, or so I am told. She bent under a basket of laundry and coal, I asked if I could bare it and gave it a go. The sun was dyspeptic, a regular bear, but I didn’t mind as we walked...
Read more →Somewhere far away you walk, in spaces broad and warm and raised, the heat a waving scarf upon you, the breeze a subtle sea. The thoughts, they bound from near to far and here and now to monographs of recent memory. Love’s won and done, breath felt and breathed, moisture and warmth, the timeless...
Read more →There once was a cat from Nantucket A feline of renown “upchuck it”- Not know to sway, At 4:10 each day, It would choke on a hairball and then huck it. This same poem in cat language would go as so: *Meow* *Horn* *Sound of the sea* *Meow* *Gek Gek Gek Applause Scream* *Silently...
Read more →Cry, but do not quake. In the end, we are droplets dripping into the same sea. Spirit to spirit, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Light takes flight, and dark sloughs off until the next spark, the next miraculous burn, the next colorful comet. But we, our incandescence done, commune with the Maker, our...
Read more →Take the parts Stir them in Here is your yearbook Here are the dog hairs Here is sand from that beach October 4, 1992 An autographed baseball A wedding program Playbill from Aida Reunion photos Ticket stub Story stub A book about the Cubs Handwritten note Unpleasant words Half smile half frown Gas stations...
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Send me outside to a solitary tree Where I’ll sit and my mind will be free From the shock jocks that wail And advertisers that sell Life necessities for a nominal fee. Send me outside to a mumbling stream Where the water will run and I’ll dream In that place without sound Where wonders...
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When I was consolidating containers on Sunday, in one of them were a few books that had been passed to me from my folks. One of those items was a book that had been passed to them from my dad’s aunt, Ruth Welton. It was a nice old hardbound volume, so I picked it...
Read more →Inside She draws the line While outside Everything is fine Run to the stairwell Run out the door What is the matter? Don’t you love me more? Inside She plays the game Outside It’s all the same Hand on her hip Heart on a cloud Here is your dinner Striving out loud Come sit...
Read more →Sing, little sparrow, morning’s come on. The branches are blowing, here comes the dawn. The hounds will soon find me, my run will be done. I will float down the river in the afternoon sun. I was never a killer, my hands loved to work. I stole nothing wrongly, I learned from the Word....
Read more →Sarah Cantata sang a sonata before she was caught by the flu. Hans Amanaster, a Cyprian Pastor, well, it found its way to him too. Mel Putnam Bailey took vitamins daily hoping to escape that great blight. He oft saw the doctor and gargled salt water and still, the flu found him one night....
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There are moments when I have a clearing in my life- when all of the sound is muted and I am not in the middle of movement or mayhem or deadlines or desperation or a flurry of inner noise- and the sky above me is white the walls around me are white the clouds...
Read more →Come join the community of the beloved Do you know the liturgy? You mouth the words so eloquently Certainly you must be elevated I will let you socialize with me We say the Words and sing the songs And we are wise and righteous You are free to join us Now here, may I...
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