From Pulp Into Paper
This is from my novel-in-progress, Pulp Into Paper. Brenda Shawn trained her flashlight on the ground and landed in the water on something soft and squishy. She shook her boot loose from gunk. Moving along like a small tractor, she checked the view between trees that led to the road. No one there. She put […]
1025 Gilman Street, Whole Foods Market
Vegetables were artfully arranged by size and color like models at New York’s Fashion Week. I wanted to eat everything. But this was not a farmer’s market or my friend’s kitchen. I’d happened upon the newest Whole Foods Market that had opened last year on Gilman Street in Berkeley, California. I’d returned to the store […]
Morning Glories
“…that was that, we could do no more—had to trust to sun and water and time…” My first garden grew in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx where every spring my mother would order morning glory seeds from the P.S. 48 school catalogue, seeds that came in brown paper packets that arrived with our […]
Change the Louisiana State Slogan
It seems odd that the Louisiana state slogan on its license plate is Sportsman’s Paradise. I am not a sport in the way that the slogan implies (hunting or fishing), nor am I a man. With such a gender specific state slogan, Louisiana has eliminated half of its population. But it’s not all about being […]
Making Friends With the Lawn
Lawns were work. Not only did people have to cut them, but just like in Ecclesiastes, there was a time to scatter seeds, a time to fertilize, and a time to spray for bugs. It seemed endless, a weekend ritual of cutting grass, grass that always grew back. It was like Sisyphus rolling a rock up a hill, and then it rolling back down again. Wby?
Vernon and Rae-Ann (4)
One summer Domino did get covered with fleas and Rae-Ann did just what her auntie had told her. By the time Domino shook herself dry, the dog was clean and ran up to lick Rae-Ann’s hand. Not a single flea. But when Aunt Dee became sick, some kind of nerve damage that attacked her heart […]
Shopping Cart
Heads of lettuce are deconstructed into plastic tubs that cost twice as much, if not more than whole heads replaced by escarole, radicchio, and baby spinach leaves. Romaine (cos) and iceberg (crisphead) continue to be available. Even so, the more nutritious outer leaves have been stripped away to reveal pale green. Walmart sells hearts four […]
I Hate Walmart
“I pass an aisle of travel mugs in different colors, and sizes, with Disney characters, Duck Dynasty members, motorcycle riders and flowers growing in orange and purple, overdosing in consumer excess and Walmart is the pusher.” I hate pulling into Walmart’s parking lot in Monroe, Louisiana, where I watch out for motorized patrons who carry […]
Hazardous Turnips: 5
The continuing story from Duck Dynasty country about a paper mill and the people caught in its hopper.
Hazardous Turnips: 4
“…she was short on sleep and in no mood for bad news.” There was no other way to tell her except for straight out. “Was the whole crew laid off?” “They said they needed a more experienced operator.” “Who said?” Since the baby had arrived, Judy was short on sleep and in no mood for […]