To Place a Face

I am standing in line for coffee. Even though the social distance floor dots have disappeared, everyone stands a decent … More

Selective Hearing

I can’t hear youYou say when you choose not to acknowledgeWhat someone has saidYou lie Over Zoom, FacetimeFake a bad … More

It’s that late hourBeer in handThe yard work done againI watch the close of the faded irisPurple and whiteNot as … More

These prints in the dust won’t last through a downpour Evidence of annihilation To be annihilated These tracks turning to … More

Turns the fingers, hands of sloppy, floppy people smudgy. Muck your hands around and blacken paper, shirt, cheek. Handwashers of … More

Our local theaters do good work, bringing drama into our lives. Usually when I go, I’m happy, but this was … More

Tourist I’m walking the neighborhoods of this small Scottish village. It’s too tiny to be called a “town”; maybe it’s … More

The first time I read Mrs. Dalloway I was quite young, 21 maybe. And I was struck by her age, 51, and … More

It’s a sight I used to anticipate several times a year. The area on the Big Island of Hawai‘i known … More

Quieter, still quieter, quiet down the energy pent up today, for such recklessness cannot sit wasting by the window ledge … More

I often remember who I am, and I recall past events,both recent and distant, with a fair degree of accuracy.If … More

Mr. Fujimoto wheeled his gray trash bin to the curb and dropped it at the edge. Pausing, he looked down … More

We sat opposite each other, each stirring coffee in thick white cups, trying to cool it off. “Cream,” I said. “Cream … More

Thank you for your note letting me know you’d received the notice I sent. It’s been a long time since we … More

Albert could hear him stop on the other side of the door. He sounded like an asthmatic, as if the exertion … More

1. Death Wish Rendered unconscious by a fall in the bathtub, a president of Russia drowned. * * * 2. … More

If I thought I could do it faster, I’d be setting myself up for heartbreak. But at my age everything starts … More

The idea is knowing I can go somewhere, and I amcreating the first pattern of steps no one has ever … More

Alice was down on her knees scrubbing the kitchen floor when the doorbell rang. The kitchen floor always took a … More

The clock above his computer was a big one. Its tick, tick, tick could be ignored some nights, but not … More