These prints in the dust won’t last through a downpour Evidence of annihilation To be annihilated These tracks turning to…
Carbon Copy
Turns the fingers, hands of sloppy, floppy people smudgy. Muck your hands around and blacken paper, shirt, cheek. Handwashers of…
Good Riddance
Our local theaters do good work, bringing drama into our lives. Usually when I go, I’m happy, but this was…
Tourist
Tourist I’m walking the neighborhoods of this small Scottish village. It’s too tiny to be called a “town”; maybe it’s…
The Hours
The first time I read Mrs. Dalloway I was quite young, 21 maybe. And I was struck by her age, 51, and…
The Sublime
It’s a sight I used to anticipate several times a year. The area on the Big Island of Hawai‘i known…
Happy Some Before Dawn
Quieter, still quieter, quiet down the energy pent up today, for such recklessness cannot sit wasting by the window ledge…
What Is Your Favorite Color?
I often remember who I am, and I recall past events,both recent and distant, with a fair degree of accuracy.If…
The Last Time
Mr. Fujimoto wheeled his gray trash bin to the curb and dropped it at the edge. Pausing, he looked down…
Sugar or Salt?
We sat opposite each other, each stirring coffee in thick white cups, trying to cool it off. “Cream,” I said. “Cream…
Dear Chris,
Thank you for your note letting me know you’d received the notice I sent. It’s been a long time since we…
The Honesty Policy
Albert could hear him stop on the other side of the door. He sounded like an asthmatic, as if the exertion…
Short Short Stories
1. Death Wish Rendered unconscious by a fall in the bathtub, a president of Russia drowned. * * * 2.…
That Long, Slowing Slide Home
If I thought I could do it faster, I’d be setting myself up for heartbreak. But at my age everything starts…
Each Journey a First
The idea is knowing I can go somewhere, and I amcreating the first pattern of steps no one has ever…
The Door Is Open
Alice was down on her knees scrubbing the kitchen floor when the doorbell rang. The kitchen floor always took a…
When Again?
The clock above his computer was a big one. Its tick, tick, tick could be ignored some nights, but not…
This Was the Way
I left you there for just a moment, at the forest’s edge, before we began our journey. When I returned…
The Thing in the Window
The icy wind swirled and cut at them like a knife that could slice a tomato paper-thin. Stars shown above as…
All Those Miles
“Put ‘er there, pal,” he says, sounding as though he’s stepped out of an O. Henry story. I put my…
