Quid Pro Quo

The blackbirds are too many nowand fierce today. Even thoughI hurried to hang the laundry on the linebefore the sun … More

Being Bold

My neighbor kid’s been helping me tie up some dead branches. Finished, I’m drinking a beer, he a passion-orange juice … More

Alert

I always drove between Oakland and Madison non-stop, except for food and fuel, no naps, 24 hours straight on the … More

We Were Then

That silver flame subdued all color  into black and white. Remembering neon paint and black light nights. I recall the … More

A Creativity Mystery

I learned recently that Claude Monet wanted mostto paint the air between himself and his subject.I’m still trying to wrap … More

A Mother’s Love

I see him limp home, his arm torn from his shoulder,mumbling weird words about a mighty stranger,some foreign crazed killer … More

A Head in the Honey Pot Forever

Unbelievable that it’s all come down to this, the tossingin of the handful of soil and the long stemmed roseto … More

It Was Something Important

A couple of years after Andrea’s father, someone I’d grown up with, died suddenly, her mother, whom I did not … More

The Language of Love

(A 100-word Shakespearean style sonnet for J. Harstad) We find ourselves inside this corridorof language; she comes from the eastern … More

Passersby

From who has been to who will be here?Questions to answer like a color commentator.Opportunities I choose to select people,picture … More

Alone Time

“Gramma, come on. Next stop Zippy’s.” Sometimes I can’t believe I’m still alive to hear this. Every year, the same … More

Yee-Haw!

Here we wooeee go, pardners, it’s the Wild West times, an’ the Wild South too, an’ the Wild East as … More

The Pattern and Order of Life and Water (for LY)

Wherever there’s waterthree atoms have formed a molecule of H2O,and on that molecular level this bondis the orderly arrangement of … More

Hit and Run (the Mouth)

I spot her in my passenger sideview mirror. I’m stopped, waiting for a car and a pedestrian to clear. I … More

Something Blue

She brought such joy under each moon, the air quiver of a cricket’s sharp chirp tingling, a pierce of air … More

The House of Missing Keys, Part 15

Recovering her composure, the woman opened the door and invited the two inside. After the three were seated, Chan began … More

The House of Missing Key, Part 13

David Chan had been a very happy only child. More than five years into that blissful solo childhood, however, his … More

As Borrowed as Time

It’s as grim as it gets right now tonight when all you want to do is buy beer kick back … More

Life’s Run

Milton stumbles shakily around Mānoa Valley amid traffic. Petrarch perambulates Punchbowl Cemetery perusing stark headstones of veterans. Shakespeare window-shops for … More

Love’s Countdown

In the beginning there was inertia,and inertia led, as you might expect,to nothing, so what had beensomethingness became nothingness: Take-out … More