All of the adults in the family are embarrassed – except for Buffy, who is bemused. But Buffy was born bemused. And he, in turn, bemuses me as I watch him sail – single and centered – through life. My eldest daughter Melissa – who over the years has taken on the role of “keeper … Continue reading
No Free Agent
The ferocious beast leaps, smashing Adam to the ground. The stiletto claws pierce his flesh. He agonizes to resist, clutching at the rhythm of his erratic breath to withstand the pain. Like his namesake, Adam Keister is cursed with knowledge. He suffers the future as well as the past. And it is the future he … Continue reading
Happy Times
Until she was twelve, Christine considered her father a god and flourished in his unspoken love. Every Saturday, she pleaded to spend the morning with him in the cramped hardware store he managed for Mr. Moore. Her mother, motivated Christine surmised from jealousy, only allowed her to be at the store during open hours, on … Continue reading
Times Like These
She was in jail; that was the short and sweet of it. Small mercy that her parents and brother long since dead had escaped the shame. And when the police finally located her resilient young niece, the young woman would pop a few wise cracks and bounce back to blue skies. But could she, Sandra … Continue reading
Universal Summer Blue
tires bumping and dust rising
we rattle past fields of unkind soil
along a dirt-forgotten road
the ethereal sky
sings out its universal summer blue
and rolling hills (which I, in ignorance,
call mountains)
bid us round the bend Continue reading
Nowadays
Her bulky handbag clutched to her chest, eyes darting left then right, the pale young woman scurried to catch the green light. Safely across the busy street, she reined up sharply: no sign of him. The damp browed uncertainties of the long night subsided, but Allison’s relief was short lived. It was almost 8:30; she … Continue reading
Abandoned
According to the newspaper, you placed your shoes and handbag neatly near the railing. Was that your final insistence on order in a chaotic world? They contorted your life into a shape they recognized: a thirty-second clip of surfaces. In better times, you would have been a poet. In our time, you were a prophet. … Continue reading
Ninety Years Young
I am classified
senior.
Here there are no elder statesmen,
only the rich become elders.
The poor become merely old.
Fodder for special housing. Continue reading
Gone Missing
“It’s only been a few weeks,” Albert insisted, slouching into the sagging couch. “It’s closer to three weeks and feels like a year,” his disgruntled friend, Tom, snapped. He surveyed his living room – once the clean, comfortable haven where, settled in his favourite chair, chilled beer in hand, he read the sports page or … Continue reading
Without the China
The Hostess has gone upstairs. No one is surprised. No one seems disturbed except the new friend wedged uncomfortably in the corner. Two of the men quarrel amiably about the party leader. He is too radical; he has no principles. They enjoy the joust: friends in their clothes, warm together. “Remember the time Amy and … Continue reading