Bracing Myself

The green tinted windowsCast an emerald glow over everythingIt’s like coming to Oz to ask for a fillingMy new dentist, … More

My new collection of stories, The Rainbows That Follow, is now available

I’m happy to say that my new collection of stories, The Rainbows That Follow, is now available on Amazon in … More

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