• WAITING IMPATIENTLY

    Waiting rooms are usually somber.That is true of most hospitalsand every mortuary. It isn’t like we needto be prepared for whatmight happen next. In the hospital the surgeon,at the direction of lawyers,has given us the worst case. In the mortuary we are certainthe departed was no saintso resurrection is out of the picture. I’m not…


  • ALLIGATOR TEARS

    Despite my admittedly limted effortsI still fail to understand whypeople here have fallen so in lovewith plastic shoes, and more so,why they are called Crocsand feature a crocodile on the package. I know one species of crocdoes inhabit this country, but almostexclusively in South Florida,where alligators are far more prevalent. And in any event, if…


  • LUNAR LUNCH

    Even as a child I wasreasonably certain thatthe moon wasn’t madeof green cheese as someof my friends said, becauseeven if it was cheese, Iwas sure it would be eitherRoquefort or Gorgonzola. No one had beento the moon back then,nothing had marred its surface,so we took the scientistson faith that it wassomething other than cheese. Now…


  • DARE I SAY

    Few will dare say it, but Ihave always imagined myselfamong the few at most thingsso I suppose it falls to me. The lifecycle of the poetincises an arc and there arerecognizable nodes along its pathfrom beginning to end. The first poem published in ajournal, no matter how small,then one in a publication othershave heard of,…


  • SOCKING MEMORY

    It appears unexpectedlylike a sock from behind the dryerlong after its matehas been discarded or converted to rag.You have looked for itever since it went missingand knowing the way of socksand their hiding placesthe dryer was one of the firstplaces you looked for it.Memories are much like socksnow and again running offand hiding, leaving half…


  • A QUESTION OF TIMING

    Umberto Eco, I believe,intending to or not,has found the perfect wayto bring classic playsback to life, to enable usto reinterpret theseold works, to hold theirreincarnated selves dear. All you need do is decidewhether you are onewho prefers beginningsor finds ends more satisfying. Go see Hamlet, but missthe first act or so, and museon why he…


  • AS INSTRUCTED

    As I was leaving the surgical centerthey handed me the sheetwith my post-procedure instructions,a sign of faith perhaps, that Iwas sufficiently out of the sedationto know what I was given. I tucked them in my pocket, anxiousto get home, to get coffeeand the food I’d been deniedsince midnight the night beforejust in case something went…


  • LAUNDRY LOVE

    In the older romcom moviesthere was often a meetcutetaking place in a laundromat. I have spent far too many hoursin laundromats when travelingon extended business trips. I found one in Santa Cruzwith a coffee shop and figuredit was where romance would bloom. I spend more than a few hourswatching but while the coffeewas always pouring,…


  • BECAUSE, JUST BECAUSE

    The cat is stalking around the house, wary. She gets this way after coming back from the vet. She actually likes the vet, and not only for the treats she gets, and the pawdicure. But she must stalk and be wary so we will be remorseful for having taken her to the vet. And she…


  • LOST LYRICS

    It is strange knowing that your visionis not what it was, not what youwant it to be, not necessarily yoursin the long run, one eye alreadysemi-useless for reading and distance. You adapt, get bigger monitors, a tabletto read the news, a magnifierwhen you need to hold newsprint in hand,a large screen television (okay, youwanted that…