Author Archives: janishaag

Kili will take your face off for arugula—or at least your fingers—her peoplewarned when I offered, in their absence,to drop by in between meals to offerher favorite leafy green treat. This small black-and-white kittywith the pooched-out bottom lipas if she’s … Continue reading →

(In honor, a day late, of National Punctuation Day, Sept. 24) It is, by its very nature, a possessive little mark,one that sidles up to an unsuspecting letter and puts its curvy little arm around it,not unlike a boy in … Continue reading →

(Sacramento, California, late September) Though her roses still have blossoms,many look weary, as are we who have weathered with her the lossof her dearest friend in May, she shouldering most of the aftermath,though she will never take credit for that. … Continue reading →

I wear the socks as if their messagewill sink into my calves and oozeits way to my lungs, which can forget to breathe when I’m counting measuresof rest in my head, trying not to movemy lips—a rookie move. But I … Continue reading →

A woman online wrote about her dog,but it strikes me that Chance, that old trickster, is our lifelong dance partner, from oursmallest selves wiggling to music as toddlers to our oldest incarnations learning to maneuverwith a cane, looking down as … Continue reading →

(Passiflora incarnata) Listen: All the flowersyou’d hoped to see on yourfavorite tropical island have likely been blownto smithereens by a hurricane,and now is not the time to make a nuisance ofyourself as a visitor.But honey, take a gander at the … Continue reading →

I know it’s silly to get all squishy aboutelectric red tomatoes hanging like tiny festive lanterns from the vines, butlook at ’em glowing as if lit from within, which they might well be. And now,in late September, nearing what has … Continue reading →

Sometimes you give in to the tears,to the need to take to the bed,maybe weep there, or sleep. But if you can, the little voice nudges,get up. The cat needs feeding,and if there’s no cat, put out some water for … Continue reading →

(for Laura Martin and Chris Musci) Furry yin and yang soulssnuggled into each other,so inseparable that onlyyou two could discernwhere one cat stoppedand the other started. The pair of black and whitehapa cats (“half” in Hawaiian)—the big fella delivered unto … Continue reading →

(a garden or part of a garden devoted to roses) Mine consists of three straggly bushesstubbornly rooted by the backyard fence. Not the ones Mrs. Young planted here thatwe inherited after we bought her house— those died, one by one, … Continue reading →