Category Archives: Uncategorized

My sister’s note is stilltaped to the pole lamp inthe living room on our mother’swell-trod route throughthe house. I cannot bear to removeit just yet, though Mom’sinnumerable trips pushingthe red walker ended21 days ago, and shefaded into the hereafter14 days … Continue reading →

Moonset in the southwestern sky,Venus and Saturn suspended abovea tiny fingernail of waxing crescent,as I pull into the driveway inher car with her in the front seat. Never mind that she’s been gonefor 12 days, that she lifted off fromthe … Continue reading →

I walk under high fogbecause something has propelled meto get outside and see the neighborhood anewon this quiet afternoon as the worldheads into who knows what. Already, across this country,two major acts of public violencehave rocked us. But because I … Continue reading →

On the last day of the year,sunshiny and chilly, I makemy way back to Amy’s deck where Shelley and the gals havebeen exercising their hearts outTuesday mornings while I’ve been otherwise occupied.Coming back into my world,delighted to be part of … Continue reading →

Just stop. Put away the phone.Look into the eyes of someone nearby—maybe in the grocery store linebehind you—and offer: Would you like to go ahead of me?I’m not in a hurry. Or to the harried checker scanningthousands of items on … Continue reading →

Great joy arm wrestles withgreat struggle, withgreat sorrow looking on, too, as the heart cracks, atthe same time a chuckleescapes. And in the divine pocketsbetween the fissuresof caught breath, as we watched her laborto leave the body thathad long garaged … Continue reading →

When someone says in hindsight,you know there’s going to comea list of woulda coulda shouldas, as if looking back over ametaphorical shoulder meansa critical review of a play that was still in previews,when the actors hadn’t foundtheir feet yet, could … Continue reading →

(adj.) exhaustedfrom Middle English “forswinke” (to overwork) and “forswink” (to exhaust) Dying is hard work,as anyone watching knows, but so’s the watching,the tending, the waiting, the all-encompassingall of it when you both wishthe ending date was marked on some cosmiccalendar … Continue reading →

Have pity on my lonely state,I am an orphan boy! How sad, an orphan boy! —Pirate King in “Pirates of Penzance,” Gilbert and Sullivan ••• He is an orphan boy now,Maxi cat, and, two daysafter Mom’s departure, I drive him … Continue reading →

(for Donna) Not waiting exactly,but keeping an eye out for the glimmer, the winkof light that says she’s still here in spirit, one weasked her for before she left. Like two days after herdeparture when I smoothed a clean towel … Continue reading →