Category Archives: Uncategorized

(Lake Tahoe, California) As a whopper of a hurricanecalled Lowell steamrolls its waytoward our favorite Pacific island, we arrive at the largest alpine lakein North America to find it whippedby wind into a deep sea green, though in a matter … Continue reading →

for Ella Capri Malekian This is not the time to tell youa story I have probably told youmany times before, but I willdo it anyway— about your second day on the planet,almost 16 years ago, when your great-uncleand I came … Continue reading →

Her downcast eyes grab me,along with her polka-dot blouse, but it’s the red-covered bookin her hands that instantly makes me want to talk to her, ask whatshe’s reading, and what a shame about the graffiti across her head,though she doesn’t … Continue reading →

In memory of Gloria Steinem (March 25, 1934–Sept. 2, 2026) And in this so-called “post-truth world,”I’m really pissed off—not at you, Gloria, but your tenure on the planet has endedwhen we need you more than ever. That’s not your job … Continue reading →

Standing over the open canon the driveway, its lid posingas a palette wearing a soppy brushready for touching up, I think of all the paint I’ve appliedin my time to walls and boards,porches and chairs, though notnearly as much as … Continue reading →

(for Dick and Alison, good neighbors) Now you, who were accompaniedby friends on your first slow meandersafter the hospital, accompany your next-door neighboras she, post-rehab, with repaired hipand walker, negotiates the road you have both driven and walkedcountless times in … Continue reading →

September tiptoes in like a teenagersneaking into the house late at night,hoping to dodge the where have you been?s, bringing with her a cooling breeze,the likes of which we have not felt formonths. But that’s what summer does: heats us … Continue reading →

It’s been a minute, I say.Or rather, I think. Or whateverone does in dreams. Or maybe not even a dream,but that funky, can’t-open-the-eyesalpha state when something propels me to the thronewhere the sleepy cat walks inwanting a pat. What minute? … Continue reading →

When people ask me if a poem has to rhyme, I usually tell them, no, of course not. A poem can have what’s called “end rhyme” (when words at the ends of lines rhyme with other lines, often changing rhyme … Continue reading →

There’s so much that is not,nevermore, maybe never was,but there is this: the pale blue house next door to yourstransformed in a single day tomimic a flourishing morning glory, purple-y purple in shade, a colorthat pops the eye and promptsa … Continue reading →