• DEARLY DEPARTED

    I saw a deceased palmetto bugthis morning in the rest roomof our favorite coffee shop . It is the first we’ve seenin four winters here in Florida,and we didn’t mourn its passing. Forty-six years ago, duringa previous Florida life, my catwould find numerous palmettos, which she found made great toysto dribble across the terazzo floorsof…


  • PELICAN

    The pelican hasn’t been aroundfor a couple of days, and we misshis akimbo dives into the pond,surfacing and throwing his head backto show he’s swallowing his catcheven though we suspect some of the timehe caught nothing at all, but knowingwe’re as gullible an audienceas he is likely to find any time soon.We hope he is…


  • WYNWOOD

    They leap from the walls, they are in your face as you approach. You don’t know what to expect and that is precisely how they wish it. Still, you don’t tire of them, and you don’t recoil, but stare more intently. They engage you, defy you and welcome in the same moment, and you only…


  • GOING DOWN

    Hell is a place where what you least desire becomes eternally yours, or so we were told as children, well not us, not the Jewish kids, for us Hell was our mothers’ finding that copy of Playboy we stole from our father’s stash our mother didn’t know about, and which he would deny, throwing us…


  • STARE DOWN

    I stand still, staring, as you stand as still staring back, neither of us yielding in what will be a long played-out game on a day of intense sunshine. I am certain you will concede will depart, and I am ready, much as you assume I will tire as my kind always do, and turn…


  • IF YOU BUILD IT

    In the midst of this pandemic everyone, it seems, is offering playlists and lists of movies to watch during the endless days of isolation, and so long as the internet goes on, we may die of viral complications, yes, but not of boredom soon. I have aggregated the various lists, stricken movies far too close…


  • THAT MOMENT

    There is always that moment when I stand stock-still, afraid to move, the poised camera a lead weight on my hands, arms emaciated hammocks dangling from shoulders inviting something that will not come into focus. The Great Blue heron, who is the sole focus of my attention, stares at me, or through or perhaps past…


  • TEMPUS FUGIT

    She parked her cart across the face of the bin, she fills the only gap. She has a look of determination that says “give me space if you know what’s good for you.” She examines each banana with the care of it gemologist and you imagine that she wears a loop. She pulls bunches apart,…


  • DIVING

    He circles carefully constantly adjusting altitude expanding and contracting his orbits in great increments. His each move is calculated that much is obvious. And you watch him with a deep fascination. You are not the only watcher this day, at this time, others peer up as he plunges downward breaking the surface, his head appearing,…


  • ONE OF US? NEVER!

    I now live among birds, and they accept me, listen to me endless complaints, and never demand I cease kvetching. I know they speak about me behind my back, but they are kind, and generally do not remind me of my shortcomings, no doubt certain I am all too well aware of my failings, and…