Age Before Beauty

She asks me how old I amWe’re standing side-by-side at the row of individual sinksI wonder each time I come … More

My name is Lanning, and I’m a floss-oholic

My addiction began with my bracesThe pain they brought bothering me as nothingCompared to the agonizing torture inflictedBy bits of … More

What the child sees

And wraith-like rollsSome marble maybeSmiles at nothing visibleAs far as I can seePlays some internal gameKnown only to herWith the … More

A Ghost Story

Those faraway eyesThe child comes to meSadness in this dreamThat weighs down my chestAll the next day and beyondHard breathing … More

Ready To Begin?

The pressure of high-school speech tournamentsbesides the speaker, and the six to follow,is something few students handle well automatically.There are … More

This Old Piano

When I sit down on our piano bench, the piano nearly 60 years old now, I am comfortable enough. I … 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

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

Pray for a Generation A

We’re in a woeful state, down to the last generation: Z.I fear it might be they’re an omega of generations … More

Goes Without Saying

Glenda:  So quiet tonight, yeah, dear. Herb:  All that screaming today.  All the noise pau. Glenda:  This neighborhood used to … More

Business as Unusual

Robert Morgado did pest control.  His father had done pest control, and so had his grandfather.  When his wife said “Nuff already, … More

Strong Women

She was having a hard time going to sleep, maybe fear of the dark and all those kinds of trauma … More