Monthly Archives: November 2017

Nebraska never seemed like much to me, but when we pulled into North Platte on a summer evening in ’95 I smiled; I could smell the mountains. It seemed like a boundary of sorts, the humid Midwest trailing behind us, … Continue reading →

The music took me when he said, you’ve got to listen to this, then proceeded to tell me how and when it was recorded and why it was so good. So I put the disc into a boom box on … Continue reading →

When I feel myself sinking I reach for a pen, open this notebook and explore the niches of my mind, where all kinds of things lay scattered about. Sometimes I surprise myself at what I find, but usually I’m familiar … Continue reading →

There are too many women in my life that have disappeared.   It wasn’t enough to take my sister, who trusted me, believed in me.   It wasn’t enough to take my wife’s sister, who was nursed back by my … Continue reading →

I walked long into the morning until the sun shown down between the tall buildings providing just a little comfort from the biting wind. And then I sat. Just sat on a bench in the feeble sunlight doing nothing much, … Continue reading →

Thursday evening. Chicago. Walking the streets in the rain, alone. Left on Hubbard Street. Hungry. There, Vermillion, that’s the place I’m looking for. Candles everywhere, shimmering on the deep red walls. The beat of Eastern hip-hop throbs.   Triple lentil … Continue reading →

I find him sitting alone in an empty room; I’m just enjoying the silence, he says. What could a little boy know about silence. When my world tilts I search for silence amidst the tumult, as things come crashing down … Continue reading →

He arrives late, by train. I pick him up at the station. As soon as we get home, he begins pulling books out of his bag, and the conversation begins, the same conversation we always have, literature, what are you … Continue reading →

I’m thinking about tamales tonight. When I was a kid I ate them out of a can, with ketchup. Shudder. It’s unthinkable. I was a young fool. But I’m not thinking about those tamales, if you could even call them … Continue reading →

There’s too much angst too much worry about what once was. The sky tilted, the earth rocked and we were sent sprawling and when we got up, I didn’t recognize where we were, and our past slowly receded into the … Continue reading →