Crush rose petals between your fingers, or a mint leaf, and it expresses the beauty of its distinctive essence when it’s bruised. I think people can be like that, creating great art and literature out of poverty, sickness, prisons, wars and abuse. The chi...
A bead of water rolls down the pane Logs roll byFive trucks in a rowOne letting his exhaust brake belchTrees line the highwayWaving branches like a cheering crowd at a raceCelebrating the exhaust brake's belch more ecstatically More beads roll down the wi...
ChapterOne: LoAnn Aroo and Her Son A young married couple live in a sod and clay house on the plains. The house is mostly underground. Wide stairs lead down to a wooden pocket door that is inset with thick colored glass panels. The roof is steep and cover...
It was 1998, in a U. S. motor-pool on Zoeckler Station, South Korea. “…and the shine on your boots’ll catch the eye of Charlie and he’ll see you.,” Specialist Josh Thorton said in a comical croaky voice “ … and you know what happens when Charlie sees you....
Maybe I’m more sensitive about cockroaches than most other people because I was eighteen, in the army, before I ever saw one. I was working in the mess hall and I went to the broom closet to get a mop when the little monster chased me out. In Montana, onl...
I was amazed when I learned that my Aunt Judy had been married to someone before Uncle Tom, forty years ago. Judy was taking care of some business at the Social Security Administration office in downtown Seattle. A man was staring at her. She got nervous....
I was appalled when I heard that Texas A&M students regularly threw old pianos on bonfires at their parties. What sacrilege. I would sit in my cozy living room and play my keyboard with the doors wide open while it rained and the sheeting sweep of rain wo...
I had radio watch. I usually did four hours a night. I wrote letters by flashlight. The letters all had a box in the lower left corner with tick-marks that I slashed into the notebook paper every time I saw a falling star. Mars marched angrily across the...
When I stumble upon ducks swimming in Lower Crow Creek, they fly away before I get very close. So it was unusual that this odd “duck” stayed. It was a big gray “duck” with an odd quack. My hound, a blood and red-bone cross, jumped in the water and swam up...
The lovers danced on the water One rippling One smoothing In an endless circle of rough and smooth The pretty one must be the goose, I thought White like a wedding dress Feathers delicate like lace The plain brown one must be the gander I looked for them...
Today I discovered that I'd rather get bitten by a parrot then to stand up to a friend.Nancy, Jack, and I were sitting on the front float of the boathouse talking. I stepped inside, to get sweet tea and glasses, and noticed that Jack's large blue macaw wa...
Someday, I want to be like my grandmother, Lois Fern. She is white, but grew up in the poor black part of a small Illinois town called Gilman. Her dad knew how to extract value from trash, and fix anything that was broken. During the Great Depression, his...
John Laud had one glass eye. The little round, shabby man was the mayor of Charlo, Montana. The population sign on the way into town said there were 822 people in Charlo, but they must have been counting the farmers for miles around. At the Charlo Cafe's...
I'm sitting in a little cafe, the kind old people eat at. The waitress has given me a menu and she has returned to get my order, but I'm still reading it. "Are you ready? Or are you still making up your mind?" "Oh, Ummm, I think I want a roast beef sandwi...
The toddler falls, but he's made of rubber and bounces back up and learns, even if he cries.The tree falls and a new and stronger one grows in its place. A hawk flies at a dove, which is overwhelmed by fear and falls, and falling saves the dove's life. Wh...
