Author Archives: janishaag

Now it’s truly summer,12 days after the solsticeas the dome descends like a cone of silencequieting the neighborhood,driving most everyone indoors but the cats,more lizard than felinethis time of year— especially my big dumbboy cat who prefersoutside despite the scary … Continue reading →

(for the mothers) ••• On the dusty back windowof a car looking as if it hasundertaken a long journey,someone has fingered the wordsWander Woman. Following it down the roadto my mother’s house,I creep closer, realizing thatit says Wonder Woman—perhaps a … Continue reading →

Sure, it’s just a quick ridethrough a car wash, but dang, if the process isn’ta metaphor for every passage through the dark, your visionobscured by soapsuds, black strips flaying yourexterior as you are somehow pulley’d through a wet tunnel.You admire … Continue reading →

Two minutes, lying down,index fingers pressing the cornersof each eye after you maneuvera single drop in. You add the lying down partto the prescription, along withthe timer on the iPad and itsserene bell, the same one thatonce reverberated around yourlate … Continue reading →

What if this is all we get of heaven?—James Crews As she lived her dying, my friend Julietold me that she thought everyonegot the heaven they imagined. Hers would be slathered in pink,her favorite color, enjoy the just-righttemperature between warm … Continue reading →

The old fence needs to come down,which means this summer’sover-the-top crop of morning glories, literally spilling over the fence,must meet an untimely death, whichkills a bit of something in me. All day—not just in the morning—light gleams down the throatof … Continue reading →

(for Kat Fleming, massage master) You know how you feel yourselflevitating off the table a bit, your body barely kept fromballooning up to the ceiling by her hands doing that thingshe does, her strong fingers holding up the back of … Continue reading →

(for Marilyn Reynolds, above with Shelley Burns) For the last time on your lawnShelley led us in Tuesdaymorning exercise— and though you weren’t there,you were, because, though it’sactually not your lawn anymore, and you’re in newdigs across town, it’s stillyour … Continue reading →

Just as you never tell your childrenwhich of them is your favorite(they all are, right?), you don’t reveal to the people sittingaround the table, writing theirart out, that they’re your dream team,the ones you want around the tablein heaven, if … Continue reading →

I take the back way home afteran afternoon with friends in the townthat embraced me four decades ago,one that I’ve never released either. It’s high summer fruit season, and,I suspect, that if I head north onPleasants Valley Road toward Winters,though … Continue reading →