While I was kissing you,far away, a bomb came through the roof,where a family eating soupsplashed blood against the wallsalong with bowls and spoons and bonesand splintered chairs,and I was holding you beneath me,while men and women ran down streetsaway from fire, flying bricks and glassand you were moaning,reaching for my hairand couldn’t hear the screams rising through the smoke and ashwhile sirens shrieked,and I was lo...

Sometimes, I’m in the jungle tripping over vines, shoving my way through bushes, looking for a path, wondering if there is one and asking with every breath, where am I? Other times I’m an eagle high above the trees soaring over lakes, my heart filled with sky, my eyes searching for the nourishment I need, wanting to dive deep into dark pools. Sometimes I’m with the stars, in orbit, far away, a point of light, my voice com...

MOVING OUT The books are packed, taken from the shelves where they have sat for years, their titles waking memories with their silent words. I’ve taken down paintings from the walls, and photographs of my children, their youthful skin from years ago now showing wrinkles as I place their pictures in a box, and now the walls are bare, the memories to be carried to another wall, somewhere. I’ve emptied out the drawers of bat...

I guess it’s in me somewhere,hovering, waiting,perhaps between heartbeats,or underneath my breath,hiding where it can’t be seen,wanting to escape to somewhere,perhaps over the rainbow where bluebirds fly—who knows why it’s there,what it wants, what it’s doingwhen I’m sleeping?Sometimes I wonder if it’s really there,or just a notion I’m supposed to believelike Santa Claus.Sometimes I want it to speak to me,tell me what I n...

1If this were paradise--fall would never fade;the leaves so red and orange would always glowin the wonder of the autumn light, and the shadeof shadows from the trees would never go,and the ancient sun and moon would always shineand fill our endless days with fragrant air,and we would laugh and never think of time,or see our wrinkling skin and graying hair.But we are here on this October dayto see two lovers standing face...

The Civil War isn’t over yet. The Crusades begun a thousand years ago have not been won, and when I read about another drone, another soldier’s suicide, another stone thrown at a women’s head, another prison being built to rid the streets of anyone who might be one of them, or smoked a joint, or didn’t have his papers in his pocket, I look up at the sun and want to cry and not feel shame for what I haven’t done, and wish...

Today when fall and summer meet each other like old friends on the streetbefore they pass and go their way,and our turning world brings chilly mornings,warm afternoons and darkness comes when it’s time to eat, and leaves, still green, will soon be gold and brown and maple red and the airis sweet,and the golden rods are everywhere,and the potato bed is culledinto buckets to be stored for the winter days ahead,and I think a...

1 Even in this bright and silent sunlight giving me another day to breath and see another dawn, another noon and night, another chance to wonder what will be and question all that comes into my mind and ponder what I’m doing here today, looking at the sky as if up there I’ll find some meaning, some answer, something I can say with any certainty what lies around the bend. And then I think of you so far away wondering too w...

  I’m getting older because I haven’t died and wiser because I seldom worry or shake my head at foolishness. I walk much slower now because my legs are stiff and know it makes no sense to hurry. Getting older like the trees I share this land with and the hills where the sun rises to glisten on the water lets me look around and see with sadder gladder eyes-- still blue like the sky but cloudy too-- and so I squint to see t...

How can I be my age when in my heart I’m forty and not the man in the mirror with wrinkled skin, white hair growing thin, eyes not as blue as I remember them. How can this be? Why this alarm to realize there’s two of me— the man out there that people see and inside, where it counts, the man who looks at pretty women and wants one on his arm, still wants romance and more, who knows his lust is far from dead, who wants to w...

While sweeping the hallway or emptying the trash cans, or making sure the bathrooms had paper towels and toilet paper, Orrin thought about Jessica. “So what if I’m the janitor and she’s a lawyer’s assistant, I’m just as good as anyone who works at Ainsworth and Thelin.”Orin was extremely shy but determined to ask her out and believed that if she got to know him, she would see that he was a lot more than a janitor. He wish...

I watch them bow again, on their knees, facing Mecca. Bony cheeks. Ribs. Their bare feet, calloused. I face Mecca, too, but the glare of the sun, or the heat, or the water, or the dirty pier does not let me see in that direction. And so I turn and watch them pray, like their fathers, mumbling to themselves as if centuries hadn’t passed while in my mind the ship’s horn screams at noon.

  We anchored in the afternoon, a mile or so off shore and I remember while the shouts and hectic movements of the crew surrounded me, like tangled line, a few thoughts tore me loose. Standing there, between the shores, dazzled by the color of the green warm water, turning red in the setting sun, I thought of Sunday school and getting read to by the rabbi and pictures showing Moses in these opened waters, going home to Is...

While maggots squirm and flies dive down for scraps of food piled here in rusted buckets, the busy pier ignores two boys grabbing at a crust of bread or a bone to eat. No one saw them sneak along the wall, or heard the squeak of the bucket’s lid as the thrown out food was shuffled through and their skinny fingers fought among the flies. As I watch them make their way past egg shells and shake away the food that lingers on...

At night, sailing through the dark, I’d lie awake hearing the wind howl and the water break and pound against the ship and there, lying on my back, looking up into the dark, I’d listen to the night above me, sighing restlessly, while the stillness, stark and jagged, made my breathing fall and rise like waves swelling under moonless skies. I’d lie there, rolling like the ship--no course, no star, no way to steer, no way to...