‘Twas two weeks before Christmas and all through the house,Pieces of cookies sprinkled Grandma’s Christmas blouse.She’d baked tasty recipes for almost a full week,Making Christmas cookies her grandchildren would eat. She sang familiar carols; sugar crystals twinkled in air,Until she called for each cookie, to package itself with care: “Oh, chocolate-covered cherries, up off the baking sheet,Place yourself gently next to t...

You're asking about Thumper's court case? He's a gladiator: battle scars, tats, muscles. Obviously, he’s a winner. You don’t find losers by the Olympic-sized estate pool with zinc oxide sunscreen slathered on a flattened nose. His white-belted red swim trunks yesterday reminded me of the ones he wears in the ring. He has a boxer's stance when he's on his feet. The announcers call him Thumper by the way he beats men to the...

The Miami sun is a friend of mine. Dappling off the pool's surface in the early morning, the sun creates playful, refracted, writhing patterns on the surface. The rippling patterns shifting in size and shape bring me a little joy. I wait quietly, knowingly, for sunscreen-covered, bikini-clad teenage girls to fill the pool area with boys, giggles, and estrogen. Eventually, their parents will arrive with the day's heat. The...

My Truth is Lonely. I imagine yours is, too. Mine can’t be shared; I suspect the same for you. Truth weighs heavily upon its owner because Truth destroys. Only fools say “Just tell the Truth. It’s the best thing to do.” Revealing a Truth always harms someone it seems. Typically Someone I know. Someone I love. I suspect the same for You. Is Truth measured by the amount of harm it causes? Truth’s a secret we hold and withho...

This is the time to lay low, my lady, to have faith in the Universe, to pluck a harp string and listen. It's time to meditate on the sound of a single string softly thrumming. Our friends, our family, each present a single tone into the air. A cacophony of sounds when assembled together. Intrusive at times, seldom in harmony, tones of friends and family are yet distinctive enough for us to focus on the one sound exclusive...

Oh, yes. I remember drawing myself up as tall as possible and leaning over slightly to peer into his rebellious, anti-parent smirking eyes. I said, "I need to know the color of your eyes for the police report plus I need your parent's phone number just in case my little girl is different when you bring her home." The boy and I connected, for sure…and I knew my daughter would be safe on her first date with a seventeen-year...

My mediocrity overwhelms me as I ruminate on my life.Were my expectations too high?Work, sleep, succeed, marry, parent, mentor, and prevail.Seven words in everyone’s life. If you know their meaning, you’re living your life backward.Fewer memories to make and more to forget ahead.The road in front of me is shorter than the one behind.I have more regrets than a thousand Frank Sinatras. My God, why have I wasted my life?I kn...

It's winter in Wisconsin,And the gentle breezes blow,Seventy miles an hour,At thirty degrees below. Oh, how I love WisconsinWhen the snow's up to your butt,You take a breath of winter airAnd your nose is frozen shut. Yes, the weather here is wonderfulSo I guess I'll hang around,I could never leave Wisconsin,'Cause I'm frozen to the ground!  

The dugout canoes were overloaded as they were paddled up the Niger River by the two guides. The freeboard of the canoes was minimal. They weren’t meant to hold three Americans. I was the heaviest and rode with one guide while two of my daughters rode with the other. I was preoccupied with the thought that I was nuts and we were in over our heads. We were being taken to a place where we could watch hippopotami in the wild...

The ducks are on the waterAt twenty-three below.They are so intelligent,Are you saying you don’t know? Its fifty-five degrees warmer,Than being in the air,The water’s above freezing,Ducks swim without a care. ‘Course we’re talkin’ free rivers,Not some flat and large calm lake,Where the ice is twenty-inches thick,For Pete’s and Goodness’ sake! So when you see an ice hole,With some men ice fishing,You know ducks are quackin...

She came to me crying after the Holidays. Literally crying.  She said she never felt so mistreated in her life. It felt like all she did was cook and clean the entire time the girls and their families were here. I spent so much time taking care of them that I didn't have time to enjoy them. They were never like this when they lived with us. Why are they doing this now? This was my cue to be fatherly and set things right b...

She walks heavily on her feet,As she approaches a netted court;Her torso bounces in rhythmic beatAnd my heart sustains a petite mort. I breathe less when she is present,And I pause to study her frame;She is muscled to a greater extent,Than others of her game. She smiles and twirls with elegance,As she acknowledges the crowd;I sigh for I’m not relevant,“Sereee-naaa!” I scream out loud. Her lioness eyes often dare,And I can...

The Board is changing. The Board will change is perhaps a better way to say it. When the Board changes, the game changes. And when the game changes, no one predicts the outcome because there are new rules in the game. No one can predict the game's winners or losers when the rules are not yet known and discovering the new rules is part of the game. The watchers are hopeful the game will be good for them but they don’t bet...

Stupid. Just stupid. The sun was setting; dusk hung like a cloak over the Coconino National Forest. I had a scotch pine tree on my right shoulder, my left hand held our seven-year-old daughter’s hand, and the lovely Mrs. L carried our three-year-old in her arms. We were walking downhill from the tree cutting area and had no clue how much farther we had to walk. All I could think was “I don’t want to be walking this road i...

I kissed you and I don’t know why; it was certainly forbid, You said Yes when I asked you, and then we definitely did. I don’t know you but your eyes are soft brown, Your face is of an angel. Eggshell blue, your formal gown. We’d never met before but when I saw your face, I knew you were the One of all the human race. You knew I was your One, I could see it in your eyes. When I asked if I could kiss you, you said Yes with...