Author: admin

As my great-grandmother lay dying, the family knowing she wouldn’t last the night, stood around her bed and sang Polish hymns. My father placed me on her chest. At three I was lean and hard. She was soft without hope for...

This scrubland, a scattering of purple hedge nettle. The path between the lagoon’s flat surface and where cows lull and breed weaves my soul into distant landlocked dunes. Tall grasses (and your hair) wave in an ocean’s breath,...

How to measure the distance between grace and chance occurrence. The circumstance of her lace and his raw silk pants. Is there a truth in the passing of clouds or the fortuitous meeting of strangers? How should one measure the...

Its name etched lightly into the support pillar in front high sideways across vision but barely visible from the distraction of intensely azure blue cut irises. The serving bar two large windows behind and a large glass pitcher...

Four weary tourists slump into chairs at a sidewalk café in the Piazza della Rotunda. A red motor scooter whizzes by nearly hitting a blond toddler chasing a yellow balloon. Honk, screech, mother yells. Dogs bark, people shout,...

“Machines are down.” Muted voices, blank faces, rows of citizens wait. For license renewals bureaucracy rules. No worker says sorry. No coffee, water, cheer. Numbly, the people sit, Old, gray with cane and hearing aids, Young,...

(after Thanksgiving by Aimee Nezhukumatathil) I juggle a can of tomatoes, three limes, and a bag of potatoes. Ahead is he who holds a block of cheddar and a bottle of wine. Broad shoulders face forward, below his clean-shaven...

Like the opening scene in a Broadway play we met, you won’t remember, in a hotel lobby. Blustery cold outside, I’d taken refuge in overstuffed chairs, mahogany tables, paneled walls, low lights. I settled in, ordered wine,...

Thank you for sixty-six years of service, for withstanding a life of bombardment: first it was sugar then drilling and filling but you kept going through one challenge after another, got your crown of enameled glory and fought...