WHEN THE ARRANGEMENTS needed to be made, I knew who to call. There are some people who have a high degree of skill and experience when it comes to such a topic, and many of them will tell you that the loss of what no longer seems to exist is only temporary. It’s one of … Continue reading The Lifecycle of Stars
SHE WADDLED WHEN she walked, favored her left. It took her four tries to get the order right, doesn't matter what it was — groceries, breakfast, DoorDash, something from Amazon... Took her ten days to learn how to use the TV remote. She loved to cook but couldn't cook worth a damn. Her legs swelled, … Continue reading Because of the Stroke
IT SEEMED IMPOSSIBLE that a book he had given away many years ago and several miles from here should now lay in his hands at this rummage sale. His first thought on seeing it was, The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry. How I wore my copy out. Then, turning a few pages and catching glimpses … Continue reading Buy It Again
The water tower dry, the name erased. The city: bisected, then again, then again. Pulsing lights. Chimney smoke. Rippling flags. There is order in death: a hall of power atop a mountain of stairs. Warping sirens. Garden beds. Sun-smeared glass. Decay has no allowance for chaos. Carbon: halved, then again, then again. All is putrefaction … Continue reading A Group of Vultures at Rest is Called a Committee
AGAIN HE HAD NOTHING to do. Well, not exactly nothing. His inbox was full of applications for building permits. Work a clerk could do, for fuck’s sake. No, work a clerk should do. Not him, a member of the Virginia Bar with responsibilities. And a Faber in fact if not in name. His brass name … Continue reading Scion
We expect her to be a diva or a monster, or merely fabulous; maybe she'll gyrate in the local co-op? But she’s normal and sad, it's said, of never being enough. When she turns up at the cricket club one Sunday, however, she’s eclipsed by rules even more never enough than her, a tea-time so … Continue reading Jennifer Lopez Moves to A Village in England
"YOU MARRIED?" asks Jake, the Uber driver. We are paused at a light downtown. The Prius hums, and chilly air seeps from the vent. "Uh, no," I reply. "You mean ever?" He barks a laugh into the rearview mirror. "No man, like right now." He turns down the rat-tat-tat of DJ Khaled on the radio. … Continue reading Heat Wave
I went to Greenwood Cemetery with a bouquet of flowers The color of cheese and a jar of Maraschino cherries to suck and chew And spit among the many rows of unfamiliar names. This was February; the year was still in deliberations. I don’t suppose I’ll ever visit the graves of friends, refuse to See … Continue reading Sonnet at Greenwood Cemetery
The ire of summer heat through the glass of my car, driving past highway construction and what once was a deer, now melted into bones on the pavement. Trees mowed down in a scarred church lot, the sign for a new building with the wood chipper beside it. And then the driveway hedge, so alive … Continue reading Crisis
THE CAT WAS BACK, which was fine with Sanders because he sure as hell wasn’t getting any writing done. Hadn’t the whole time he’d been here. Blame the cold, the rain, and now the cat. Even when it was dry, the magnificent desolation of North Wales distracted him, too. This soaked, mewling, clay-colored cat gargoyled … Continue reading A Man Without Prudence