Extraction

It’s at moments like these a man faces his mortalitySmokes that last cigarette to settle his nervesA prisoner facing the … More

Numb

I’ve lived in Madison three years without a teeth cleaningThe dentist, between grunts, tells me I must do this more … More

Before Fluoride

There’s something quirky about his eyesThey vibrate electric, left right left rightTwo butterflies trapped like ratsIn almond-round drains that swirl … More

A Few Words to the Wise

I remember how I lost my teeth, the wisdom onesAll four at one blow to a drillAnd on a tray, … More

The Burning

Merry Christmas, the card was white, like Madison snowAnd like snow does,  it’s become splotched with brown. I remember when you … More

Wistful

Very soon, she said, maybe next weekHer face pressed against the pillowDamp from this night we sweated in the humidityOf … More

You’re So Ambitious for a Juvenile

My guardian angel wasn’t there to protect meWhen my nose sucked in gobs of chlorinated waterMy eyes stinging and my … More

The Sounds of Seniors

Listen to your body, they said to me back thenSage advice for a young man with keen hearingSo I listened, … More

A Family Tradition

I remember, nearing the endBefore dementia overwhelmed himThe first thing every morningMy father read the newspaperTurning more and more oftenTo … More

This Will Be

She will becomeI see it, and I hear itThe prophesy of hope soon to be realizedJust a few more sick … More

Jim, how I miss those horseshoe days

Remember the day you and I dug the pits at Castle Memorial?How you pinpointed the distance with a tape measureMaking … More

Aftermath

At the rate they were rifling through the houseIt wouldn’t take them long for them to clean outEverything of any … More

Madness

When B.H. told me he was madI wasn’t sure what he meantSo I asked if he referred toAngry or crazyHe … More

3,650 rough drafts, 10 years later

On this date in 2014, I challenged myself to post a rough draft a day. It’s been a good 10 … More

The Years

Time creeps, time runsSometimes bothSometimes only oneIt moves along at any rate When you near the finish lineWill you show … More

I guess I must have known some of them

Photos of kids in the bathtub with othersCan make you reflect on your childhood and shudderHow could parents think this … More

Late Friends

At this rate, you may meet them in your next lifeHunched here, ass throbbing, sliding on the benchTo catch the … More

Hauntings

I see the scene of resting that night poorlyThe fitful 2:00 a.m. dead of a Madison nightOutside a Lutheran church … More

Until Then

When I do something now that I did 40 years agoWith the same ease as back then, I’m sometimes amazed … More

Fall Apart

You may think your love’s perfectly pieced togetherThe final puzzle as pretty as the picture on the boxEvery curve and … More