Author: admin

Everything’s so dry you could blow it all away in a breath. But what ardor, what succulence— flowers colorful as clowns, few and florid, stems prickly as pikes, birds noisome nearby, sun an impossible hue that won’t die till the...

He has never walked so far in his life— from nowhere, an open expanse no one claims, to this border where they demand papers, and IDs, and loud explanations. He is not a person without them. He is not a person anyway—not yet....

In gratitude for Greek generosity I don’t know how much water these cupped hands can carry, bailing the rising, unrelenting waves that are endless, though we see shore, rocky, with foreign faces calling, keep on, keep on! We...

Born and grown, an island in view of the peninsula of Florida, raised in shades of sabal and coconut fronds, too much sun, too many tourists, too many beaches, I had to flee—crossing oceans, but needing to seek lands that thrust...

This early wet spring, small black ants visited my house. I stood above them spraying toxins as they waddled over the door sill into my bathroom. Those that made it, died in the white as I sprayed them again. Unlike the Marines,...

He cut in front of me. His shirt said West Point Boxing. Everything slowed when I saw it. He announced he was going first. I said no; I couldn’t back down. Betty was terrified. I felt each valve of my heart thumping and wished...

If it was a clear day, you saw the suggestion of a city far to the east. Every summer, I imagined that it was several centuries ago: this was a safe hiding place for the rebel’s hogs in the revolutionary war. Unless you knew it...

A Last Salute for Capt. Duncan MacRae, USMC After the gore and glory of Guadalcanal, this? No quick combat death, but battling all the same against the slow invasion of belligerent cells. The wars he fought were terrible...

Words fail me. Literally. Or maybe I’ve failed words. I’m not a thesaurus. So what. I chose to aim for the bull’s-eye word, to hit the verbal nail square on the head, to chase after the right word, to find le mot juste lost at...