Author Archives: janishaag

Walk around feeling like a leaf.Know you could tumble any second.Then decide what to do with your time. —Naomi Shihab Nye from “The Art of Disappearing” ••• And they did.She did. He did.Tumbled into gone-ness.Leaving us heart-heavy.Leaving us. Leavingas the … Continue reading →

Sculling faceup in the pool,the increasing moon climbingheavily into the sky, I float under dozens anchoredhigh in the trees, like a flockof white doves stilled by sleep, not a coo from any of them,guardians observing my slowlaps. Or are they … Continue reading →

I awaken with a headache—not unusual as the pressure rises—when the H on the weather mapsmeans high, which we all feel, including the cats, who, despite allthat fur, morph into feline lizards,typically flopping onto too-hot cement,sponging up sun. But today, … Continue reading →

In memory of Ruth Rita Nelson Every year you’d send me a cardaimed to arrive on the 30th of June, rosy with floral sentiment and yourfamiliar signature, Love, Mom II, because you took it upon yourselfto mother the new girl … Continue reading →

for RDS On the same day I’m given a dummy typewriter—tin, hollow inside, perhaps a movie prop—from a long-ago student who has neverforgotten my affection for old-fashionedtyping machines, you and I head for the fancy computer storenamed for a fruit … Continue reading →

This lust hits me every year about this time,as the temperature soars toward the centurymark, as kids unwrap from school and taketo their bikes to freewheel their way whereverthey want to go. Though I don’t recall asking for a pink … Continue reading →

The path that is new to youis familiar to others, clearly worn by feetwalking it minutes, days, decades,centuries before you. You know this, of course, but walkingwith a friend — who used to regularly treadthis path with her beloved — … Continue reading →

I want to be fully here. Tonight I will sleepbetween two streams of water, under stars that movefrom what I don’t know to what I don’t know. —Pat Schneider from “If I Were God” in “The Patience of Ordinary Things” … Continue reading →

for Lauren and Gerald, now joined by Henry He should have arrived witha list clutched in his tiny fist,an instruction manual for thisnew human, specifically tailoredfor his particular self. But no. They don’t send themwith one. I don’t know why.Like … Continue reading →

First, you can’t.You can try. But you can’t. They have to want to return,and if they have lost the gleam in the eye,the impetus to continue, the breath,you have to know that all the urging,the pleading, the desperationwill not help. … Continue reading →