Author Archives: janishaag

Everyone needs a bit of kindnessto unwrap and bite into, and someoneonce said that if they ask, it shall be given,so I give chocolate to the inflatable T-Rex appearing at my door, along with six skeletons,assorted princesses and ninjas, and … Continue reading →

It may seem ghoulish to someto walk my neighborhood cemeterythe day before the day beforethe day of the dead, but I like to pay my respectsto the souls of the ones buriedand interred here as I walk,trying to name all … Continue reading →

“The last wall of the fort is gone.”—Dick Schmidt, retired Bee photographer, about the demolition ofThe Sacramento Bee building, 21st and Q streets, Oct. 29, 2025 ••• (For Dick Schmidt and those who spent their careers committing acts of journalism … Continue reading →

Root your feet in river soilleft by last winter’s rising,as the languid waterslaze in autumn torporbefore what’s sureto fall again. Look across the liquid swath—today muddy, tomorrow cobalt—flowing south, and think ofwhere it begins, 222 milesnorth of two cities thatbear … Continue reading →

I’ve decided that October will go downin my history as a Month of Infrastructure, the unsexy, can’t-see-it-but-if-it-breaks-you’rein-big-trouble repairs that had to happen, in home and work spaces, while trying tocalm my galloping heart as I channel my mother’s mantra when … Continue reading →

(for Martha Kight) Good heavens, we’re old enough to play Juliet’snurse, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you have, though, really, anyone over, say, 30 could do it,since Juliet’s supposed to be all of—what?—13, about to be 14 on Lammas … Continue reading →

(for Georgann) I had no idea you could send a packagefrom your corner of forever.I assume it was from you because I can’t think of who elsewould send me a noteless box of giftswith items that are so you: • … Continue reading →

(for my mother) Not that you were a gardener.You couldn’t keep half the plantsin the pots on your patio alive,forgetting to water them as you did. As a kid, I remember African violetsboldly purple in small planters onthe windowsill over … Continue reading →

(for the writers who come from all over the world to write with me online) How we chafed, stuck inside,reduced, we fumed, to communicatingonly with those in our living spaces and faces of others we were missinglocked in tiny rectangles … Continue reading →

(for Sue Lester) Though my best childhood buddy next doorgrew up with a rare, red, actual racing Ferrariprized by her father in their garage,I was nurtured to adulthood by a dadwho could tear apart a Chevy engineand put it back … Continue reading →