• SENTINEL

    She carefully noted all of the comings and goings. She dares not miss a thing, that would be unthinkable. She takes mental notes, has no need for recording devices. She will tell you when something is out of the ordinary. She will demand you act when that happens. She will describe to you how that…


  • IF ONLY

    If there were truly justiceat least of the poetic sortperhaps Van Gogh couldhave been born 75 yearsearlier, and in Viennanot Holland, so that whenhe decided to be ridof an ear he could haveoffered it to Beethovenneither of his workingin his later years. Andif a poet could arrangetime travel using his licensethen he could just as…


  • LAMBERT FIELD

    The gravestones, in random shapes line the hill the morning chillcreeps between them and onto the runway until washed awayby the spring sun slowly pushing upwardas the jet noise washes the hill unheard He passed away quietly in his bed ending his dreadof the cancer slowly engulfing him his vision dimmedby the morphine that pulsed…


  • THEN

    A bicyclered Schwinnrust encirclingstem andheadset. Baseball cardsclippedto frameengagingturning spokesimagined motorspeeding downbuckling sidewalk. Skinned kneesbloody,wheel rimslightly bent,wishing suddenlyfor winter.


  • ON THE PRECIPICE

    He never imagined for a momentthat he would be here, hereof all places, on the precipiceof an abyss the likes of whichhe only visited in nightmares. And he knew, when he lookedback he knew he would seethe pack of Abyssinians headingfor him, and that was anothernightmare given his cat allergyand his intense Ailurophobia. So there…


  • NIGHT SKY

    We will the sun to riseit lifts from the horizonnature knows better in the depth of nightthe one billion trillion starsalways ignore us neutron stars collidegravitational waves washover the cosmoswhile a Goldilocks planetlooks on in childlike wonder


  • THE RITE

    It is coming, a littleover a week now and itwill arrive, always too soon,never ready despite knowingits precise arrival day and time. We will be ready, butonly after a scramble, for thatis how it must be, howit has always been. And again this year wewill be thankful, as all claimon this day, but why do…


  • SITTING WATCHING

    Of course when we livedup north we wouldn’thave imagined this, sittingon our lanai watching the sunset the patchy sky ablazesipping small glasses of portand wondering if a lightjacket might be in order,as the beaver moonof November waxes slowly. The cat, curled at our feetcannot imagine the icy windhowling down the street,the foreboding clouds offeringtheir first…


  • LIONEL HAMPTON AND THE GOLDEN MEN OF JAZZ

    Blue Note, pardonour constructionblack paintedplasterboarda hangingair conditioning duct. Grady Tatesneering at the skinsgrowling at a high hathands shiftingdeftly reaching inpicking a beatand sliding itover the crowd. Jimmy Woodeblind to the lightsslides his fingersover stringsand talks to the bassresting on his shoulder.It sings backbegging , pleadingdemanding as his headsways with an inner vision. Junior Mancesways slowly…


  • THE QUESTION

    Even long after he had lefthis childhood behind, or suchof it as he had actually had,he could still stare up intothe night sky, at ceiling of starswith more than a little awe. And even though he had leftchildhood behind, no onehad yet answered the onequestion his parents duckedtime and time again, oneso simple a child…