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 f...
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...
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 s...
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 d...
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 w...
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 mi...
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...
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...
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...
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 Ainswor...
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 t...
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 w...
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 th...
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...
