• DUSK

    There is nothing like, nowords to adequately describe,that moment when a cloud-hazed sun lingers wishfullyjust above the horizon, graspingthe sky with brilliant talonsof light, fearing becominglost in a darkness that will,on this night of the new moon,engulf us all in its inky shroud. We know, or pray, the sunwill return in hours, justas the sun…


  • DEGENERATION

    I feel like I ought to beliving in Texas againfor everything, they say,is bigger in Texas, and youdon’t argue with a Texan. So much in my life is bigger now,a computer monitor that wouldpass for a moderate sized TV,with font so large a single pagefills the screen, and the tabletthe size of, but thank Godnot…


  • TIME WHEN

    There waa a time whennews wasn’t news, carriedby mouth, one personto another a game of telephonebefore that concept existed. Newspapers promised usthe news, but in the timeit took to write and print it,it was nearly news,or at worst slightly olds. Now the world is alwaysavailable instantly, but weknow or should, that halfof the time we…


  • THE ANCIENTS

    Night and the ancients retreatto a dark corner of their celestial prisonfrom the promised arrivalof the yellow dwarf from whichthey know we demand a presence. We ignore the ancients now,ignore those who cast theminto their prison, ignorethe acts for which they werebanished, care only to name them,and they know that our recognitionis their only grasp…


  • POP-UP BUFFET

    The cranes walk togetheras a pair, announcingthemselves loudly,strolling across the lawnheaded for the one yardwhere the sod has beentorn out to allow regrading. The equipment has pausedand they take thisas an invitation, stoppingfor a large mealat the new buffet,certain that thiswas done just for themand perhaps a few ibis,should they happen along. Tomorrow this will…


  • A HELL OF A CHOICE

    But what if Heaven operateslike a restaurant, closedeach Monday, so you hadbetter die on Sunday, butthat doesn’t work becauseGod is resting and thereis no getting in on the sabbath. That leaves you five daysfrom which to chooseto die, but God also isthe ultimate physician,so Wednesdays the officeis closed, so that dayis out unless you canarrange…


  • WRONG AGAIN

    As a teenager, like somany others of our narrowminded, obsessed gender,I imagined myself a great lothario,girls on the edge of womanhoodlining up for my attention. The absurdity of that dreamwas lost on me and my peers,testosterone drowning it in a seaof hormones, and we were obliviousto the real obstacle alwaysright in front of us, that…


  • DON’T BLAME ME

    On the day after I diethere is a real possibilitythat the sun will refuseto rise, an appropriateeffort at mourningwhich would be appreciatedif I were only thereto not see it. So I will just take iton faith, and as for thoseof you who survive meI will apologize in advancefor your day of darkness,although we both knowyou…


  • LUNA PENDING

    From the heart of the nightthe moon appeared, or a smallcrescent of it, coy this nightas she is on a regular basis. She hinted at her fullness,but we knew that was stilldays off, the moon keptto a rigid schedule always. But her reticence this nightinvited the stars to takethe stage, some we rarely seewhether hiding…


  • HE/HIM

    When he says he thinksthat it is rather queer,you wonder if he uses queeras a non-gendered pronoun,and if so you think hemight just be right. But what if he is a verballuddite, locked in an archaiclexicon, unable to dealwith an ever more complexsocial and sexual worldwhere what was is, and whatnever was is, and who…