an old writer and his words

  • JUST LIKE THAT

    “And just like that,” he said. “Just like that,” she replied. “Are you certain, I wouldn’t want to go off half cocked?” he asked. “I wouldn’t have said it if I wasn’t almost certain, would I,” was her retort. “But almost certain isn’t absolutely certain,” he noted. “As you well know, nothing is absolutely certain…

    Lou Faber

  • PIGGIES

    I have to stop and wonder ifthere is a parent alive whohasn’t gently pulled on the toesof achild too young to objectand recited “this little piggy.”And of course most children gigglebut not for the reason the parentssuspect or hope, but at the sightof a large person turning intoa somewhat ridiculous child.If they could comprehend justwhat…

    Lou Faber

  • UNDER FOOT

    Okay, let’s get some things straight once and for all. I don’t live in a shoe. It’s a work of modern architecture, a quite normal if unusual looking home,, and if you imagine it shoe-like, so be it. I’m not old, I’m 45, but with eight kids I am prematurely gray. It wasn’t broth I…

    Lou Faber

  • SERIOUSLY AMAZON?

    I am struggling to understandjust who is the target marketwith a thirty piece atof rubber ducks for the baththat Amazon wants to sell me.I did have a rubber duckyfor the bath when I was a childbut he was singular, and whenhe partially cracked and drownedI buried him in the backyardand vowed never to ownwaterfowl again,…

    Lou Faber

  • EDITOR

    The problem with having someoneedit your writing, particularlyif you are a poet, is thatthe moment they go beyond simplepunctuation or obvious grammarthey are writing their own poemand to some lesser or greater extentthe poem you gave them no longer exists.There may be something to be saidfor allowing that, for when theyreturn their poem and you…

    Lou Faber

  • AUTHORSHIP

    If birds could write, which birdwould write like which author.The Osprey would clearly be Hemingwayknowing the sea, but with no need for an old man.The common Gallinule might becomeBilly Collins, an easy laugh and always entertaining.The crows could be so many writersattending workshops, all still lookingfor a voice to express themselves withoutcausing their audience to…

    Lou Faber

  • HOME AGAIN

    You can go home againdespite what the author saidbut home won’t be home anymoreso perhaps the author was right.It used to be a little used beltwaystrangling the already smalldowntown, a sunken dream ofsome city planner with myopia.Now they have filled that inand lined it with apartments;here an array of identical, stacked boxes,the blocks of an…

    Lou Faber

  • PEKING

    Chi-Chi was a cute pekein a very “runt of the litter”sort of way, cuddly buthardly the show dogher breeders had intended.I asked why she was calledChi-Chi and my father searchedand showed me her AKCpapers, with the full namethat would’ve made thoseof Spanish royaltypause to consider the brevityof their seemingly endless names.She was a simple joy,…

    Lou Faber

  • MOLDY

    Say what you will aboutthis modern age, beset with,well, it’s probably far easierto list what it is not beset with,but there are things from my youththat I do not miss at all.Like the copper molds that homeon the kitchen wall, one the shapeof a lobster, another an ornate ring.They were strange but reasonablydecorative items, but…

    Lou Faber

  • EULOGY

    In a perfect world it would bea requirement that every personupon reaching the age of 40would be compelled to writea draft of a eulogy in the voiceof each lover or partner whoserelationship he or she chose to end,one that the spurned loverwould deliver at his or her funeral.The task would comewith the caveat that one…

    Lou Faber