Category Archives: Uncategorized

said the hand-written signin a shop in the old movie-set western town, and I looked closelyto see what I might identify, not being well-versed in anatomy,and then I thought, I hope these came from animals, as I detectedbleached vertebrae and … Continue reading →

Who put them there? I askedthe postmistress of Pioneertownon the afternoon of the winter solstice. I meant the old typewriters rustinginto artifacts in the old West-movie set town,placed by someone more than a decade earlieratop kids’ small desks, the kind … Continue reading →

in a warm place… well, warmer than home,where, on the shortest day, we understandit’s doing a fine imitation of winter—the kind of winter we get, which is to say,cold and dreary and gray, cold enoughfor snow but sea-level elevation to … Continue reading →

for the first time—woo hoo!—and though no one in the familywanted to ask, we were quietlyhoping/wondering/imagining what it might be like to havea baby in the family again sincethe last baby is now 32 anda middle school band teacherwith a … Continue reading →

tonight, beginning the festival of lights,in tribute to friends and beloveds whocelebrate, honoring those rebelliousMaccabees, who reclaimed, cleansedand rededicated the temple, then relitthe single candle that continuouslyburned for eight days. It is that miracle and others I praiseon these darkening … Continue reading →

Two weeks ago it stopped,mid-cycle, as we aging machinescan do, and flashed a two-wordmystery at me: Pump block? How should I know? I said.But the washer ignored me,flashing its persistent messageuntil I turned its knob to off. I asked Leaman, … Continue reading →

Noun [man-swi-tood, -tyood]: mildness; gentleness Is it because he was a manthat I found this his mostattractive quality— his mildness, his gentleness,his great heart, which,by the time it stopped, had grown three times                                its normal size thanks tomalformed valves? What if … Continue reading →

she scribbled on a yellow pad in her lap,sitting in my city, leading a workshopof tentative writers, most of themunsure about calling themselves writers. A writer is someone who writes,she’d declared long before, creatingthe encouraging method she left us,along with … Continue reading →

with four Santa-sized bags around him,khaki bits winking out of mostly dirt brownlumps, his eyes crinkled even in shade as though the sun shines perpetually in them,I offer eight granola bars and a bag of garlicnaan, oval hunks of thick … Continue reading →

Gotta guy on a polein my backyard at 8 a.m.—not something that happensevery day, especially on a brisk almost-winter morning like this one,but he’s giving it the oldcollege try, tinkering with wires,trying to speed up myinternet, which guys likehim have … Continue reading →