Injustice everywhere. How do we go on like this?The air says nothing. Nor does the window,the wall, the desk. But the desk holds up the blank page I put on it. Holds up the computer, the cup of tea.Holds the pens, the books, the great piles of the stuff of my life, as if to say, this is how you do it. Hold what […]
One summer’s evening, when a woman was sitting with friends at a table in a fine establishment,her daughter announced it was the one hundredthanniversary of Winnie-the-Pooh. “Well, Hallo,”said the woman, as she remembered how oftenishlyshe and her son would play a game in whichthey would guess at what character a person would beif they lived in […]
for Mom and Dad on their anniversary Mostly I remember them holding hands. Not swinging over rivers filled with crocodiles.Not passionately kissing on the edge of a canyon.Not jumping from planes, though they did scuba dive.I remember them peeling and chopping thirty pounds of carrots they bought bulkso they can freeze them. I remember themcleaning the boat. I […]
There is the moment when the woman is deciding what to make for dinner—a tofu curry with beet greens from the garden?Or maybe guacamole with all those avocadosshe bought on sale. When she reaches for the greens, that’s the kind of momentwhen a Greek goddess doesn’t appear beside herand shake her head as if everything dependson the […]
There is a slip of time before the footmissteps and twists and breaks, that moment whenthe bone’s still whole, the woman still upright. And from that slip, well, then there’s only after. After, when the bone is cast. After,when the child has left. After, when the callous words can’t be unsaid, the missingring can’t be unlost, the train […]
The way the cellist smiled at the first violinist,that is the way I want to smile when I die, a joyful smile that says, “I am all in on this song;and here, let me now toss the melody to you.”
I know I like to keep my secrets close. It’s who I am. That doesn’t mean I don’t love you. Doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate it when you plant larkspur and roses, lavender bushes and apricot trees, as if you believe in investing in a world years from now. Of course, I appreciate the way you call your congressmento tell […]