an old writer and his words

  • RUSHING IN

    Step right up, don’t hang back,come and watch the fool perform for you.You know me, bedecked in motley emotionsworn like so many colorful rags,a suit of too many shades and hues,all displayed for your entertainment.See if you can find ten shades of angeras I prance around in front of you.Count the five flavors of tearsthat…

    Lou Faber

  • AT ONE

    You need not apologize, for wedo not expect it, and wouldnot accept it as freely given. It is not that you have notdone so much it warrants,for that list is long and repletewith all manner of sins. It is simply that we are notin a mood to accept an apology,denied so long, for hollow wordshave…

    Lou Faber

  • FINDING PEACE

    It wasn’t lost on me, mother, that this yearon the anniversary of death, you had been goneeighteen years, Chai in your beloved Hebrew,a lifetime for me, having never met yousave in the half of my genes you implantedin me when I was implanted in you. As you aged, alone, did you wonder whatbecame of the…

    Lou Faber

  • SENBAZURU

    10,000 origami cranesfloated down over Tokyoeach bearing the soul of one gone in nature’s recent fury.Each crane cried freelythe tears flowing into the Sumidaforming a wave that washesback to the sea, replenishing its loss.We, too, shed our tearsand look skywardsad in the knowledgethat with each passing daystill more craneswill fill the skymore tears seep backto…

    Lou Faber

  • HARLAN

    You came, Harlan, to Rochestersomewhere in an endless winter,“Ellison in Tundraland” you said.We all chuckled approvingly. You said a short prayerclimbing into the rusting Opel,sliding on the edgeof oblivion, andthe approaching snowplow. You stood, hoarse, smellingof Borkum Riff and English Leather,a tweed jacket over a polo shirtand thinning jeansand told us of the insanityof television,…

    Lou Faber

  • FIRST KISS

    You ask me if I rememberwhen we first kissed, and then addand what was it really like for me. I know the answer you expect,and I am reluctant to tell youotherwise, but I have to be honest. It was moments after I left youat your door on our first date,having found my car finallyin the…

    Lou Faber

  • AND CUT

    It is a sad fact of life that Floridahas disqualified itself as a movie setfor a vast number of filmsthat will now go before the cameraon the streets of some Canadian city. No one is making films aboutdrug runners coming ashore inteal and pink with a soundtrackby Jan Hammer, since the illicitdrug of the moment…

    Lou Faber

  • MANUAL LABOR

    (Instructions for Mourning a Marriage) It didn’t come with an instruction manual,no simple, poorly translated diagramstelling me to “be inserting Tab Ainto the Slot B,” none anywhere to be found.But I was young, and didn’t worry,despite entreaties to get help firstbefore beginning the intricate task of assembly.I laid out all of the parts carefullyuntil it…

    Lou Faber

  • GOING HOME

    They say you cannot go homeagain, although I have neverhad occasion to meet them. I’ve never been one to followthe dictates of them, unless theywere my parents or spouse, andin the case of my parents, oftennot even when they demanded it,so I went back to the homeof my childhood, a shockinglynew place as I remembered…

    Lou Faber

  • ABIDING NATURE

    The abiding Buddha natureof birds is demonstratedby their calm ability to carryon conversations in the presenceof interacting humans, whoare too often deaf to the soundsin which nature immerses them. But when we speak to the birdsin a crude facsimile of theirnative chirp, caw and trill,they pause to listen, strainto understand us, wishingonly to let us…

    Lou Faber