Paschal Lamb
and maybe it will be a promised land when values can run wild
and trump the Trumps everywhere
Sisters
For years I didn’t like either one of you, felt I was returning the favor— the baby, an annoyance, an inconvenience, the one you dragged on the subway to go ice-skating, left me holding the railing. In a one-bedroom apartment, slept on a twin bed in the corner of the room, got up early on […]
Spring in Louisiana
Violets getting pushy on front lawns. Redbud trees pink against winter’s bare branch. Irises swell in bed, such proud mamas. Butterweed give yellow a new name. Thatches of loblolly surround bald land. Wisteria is lace, the purple rain. Couches of azalea watch the passing game.
Date Night at the Half & Half: Rae-Ann (5)
She looked at the clock. She was expecting him to come through the door at any moment. After all, it was getting close to 7:30 in the morning. Vernon was always on time. Earl had been the same way. But that’s not to say she hadn’t heard a lot of scuttlebutt—over the years people gossiped, […]
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 […]
Rae-Ann, the Trusted One (2)
Every morning after she had switched on the lights and turned up the thermostat of the Half & Half, she thanked Earl for taking such good care of her. He had been a good man; after his funeral, all the store regulars had mailed her condolence cards in tones of silver and violet that she arranged on the fireplace mantle, and for the first few months, touched each one as she walked in circles from the living room to the kitchen.
The Sprite of Latham Fountain
The cry of Canadian Geese stirs leaves. She climbs a tea tree, hides her clothing behind a rock. Her naked thighs shimmy along each knot of bark.
Ten Years Later
“No limits, just edges.” –Jackson Pollack You were so fantastic, reminded me of Gene Wilder with wild eyes, green and lashed, red hair spun by Rumplestiltskin into breakers that broke at your forehead, something primeval in the way you understood the world, a Willy Wonka who spoke, but did not speak the same language as […]
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 […]
Shopping at Walmart in January
Walmart ordered way too many bicycles this year to sell over the Christmas holidays. They outline the entrance to the store all the way back to the Garden Center, blue and pink bicycles, waiting like lost puppies for a family to take home. It is January, post-holidays, several weeks since we’ve gone shopping. Provisions are […]