An Old Story

The humming in my head is so persistentit gets me up in the middle of the night. Night hunger, like … More

Payment (HS 125)

Suddenly I woke up, straining to look up,heard that incessant beating on the doorby the frozen hand, and I saw … More

A Good Turn

Mrs. Kimura always gave us all kinds of goodies over the years.  She would make them herself, all year round.  A month … More

Fly Away Home

I love retirement. In the morning, when folks are standing at the bus stop outside my house, I hang on … More

A Cleaning

Since the time he’d had braces as a kid, he’d been a floss-aholic.  Any food particle between his teeth drove him … More

A Pairing

Sometimes it felt like everything came down to a beautiful struggle in the dark, the work and work until she … More

Missing

If she’s told them once . . . well, she has told them once, hasn’t she? Hasn’t she?  It’s hard to … More

A Helpful Kind

He’s always thinking about other people, more particularly, what he can do for this family.   Barbeque perhaps, bake some muffins, … More

Gambler (HS 124)

I run across the street, against the red light,to get out of the downpour.  I have no umbrellaagain. I never know … More

Gallery

So, yeah, that’s the last one there.  None of themare perfect, of course, none exactly to my tastes, really,but I’m no … More

The Brakes (HS 123)

Near seven decades of run on, sentenced to a worn and hazy neatlythere you go, so you’ve slowed, you slowly, … More

When I Travel

The idea is knowing that I can gosomewhere, and I am making the firstpattern of steps, no one has ever … More

Exit Laughing

Being able to tell a joke is an art,rolling helter-skelter over a rough patchof cobbled words to a smooth finish,kicking … More

In the Forest

It was very strange, wandering there in the woods of Cape Breton.  I had just finished 10th-grade.  My folks and I were … More

And Counting

Another summing up from the lectern,that all told coming, maybe the biggestword problem we’ll ever solve.Who said they’d never need … More

Christmas Spirit

It’s the week before Christmas. I’m in a store at Ala Moana Shopping Center, that conglomeration of places that speak … More

Memento (HS 119)

To every woman I’ve wanted to sayI love youI love you. For every woman I’ve wanted to kissand didn’tthis is … More