-

EMPTY PLATES
The old gods have takenup residence is small casitason the edge of SaguaroNational Park outside Tucson. It isn’t Olympus, but theproperty taxes had becomeunsustainable with so fewbothering to offer tributes. They have gotten overtheir jealousy of the newgods living in the valley,with their European villas, yachts and getaways,for the old gods know wellhow it will…
-

MOSES SAYS TO AARON
We sat in the tentand you complained againof our condition, knowingwhat lies just out of reach.He speaks to me, not youand there is little you can doto hide your jealousy.I often wonder what mighthave happened if I had wipedthe blood of the lamb from your lintel.It was you who watchedthe calf take shape anddid nothing,…
-

ON BEAUTY
As you look at him or herdo you see someone witha beauty you only wish you had,or someone you pityfor lacking your beauty? As they look at youdo they see someone witha beauty they only wish they hador someone they pityfor lacking their beauty? When I look at either of youI see a person like…
-

NO REPLY
You must be home now, or somewhere you can answer my call, and the busy signal or disembodied voice, purporting to be you can only mean that this very moment if you are calling me the busy signal or disembodied voice purporting to be me is giving you a momentary frustration rivaling my own. This…
-

STEPSISTERS
Perhaps tonight the slightly waning moon will bathe us in her presence. That presupposes the clouds, so very jealous of late, allow her to appear. They, and the unending winter, are the evil stepsisters, and they have neither justice nor compassion for the moon or for us. And so, to save their maleficent case, I…
-

A SHORT LONG LINE
There is a statue of William Penn atop the city hall in Philadelphia seeming to stare down over the city with bronze eyes incapable of seeing. Hagar wandered the wilderness after she was evicted by Abraham at Sarah’s urging, the price of jealousy, with bread and water and the promise of a great nation. It…