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STET-US QUO
The mind can bea brutal editor, revisinghistory, rejecting memorieswithout a substantial rewrite. My step sister, many yearsdead remains five, thatyoung face engraftedon the woman ravagedby unrelenting cancers. My first wife of 30 yearsis mostly faceless, themental pictures and dreamsedited until only sheis unrecognizable. And in moments of reflectionI am no longer adopted,the step-siblings were,but they…
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A WELL REHEARSED SILENCE
Of course there is something I oughtto say, moments like this require it,it goes without saying, painfully. I practiced lines for hours, rehearsedin my dreams for weeks, knewfor years I’d be rendered mute. My tongue swells, threateningto escape my mouth or take refugedeep within my esophagus. Your silence is only compoundingmy anxiety, how can I,…
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HOW WOULD I KNOW
It is highly likelythat I snored mostof last night, I cannotbe certain but my wifesays I did and sheis rarely wrongabout such things. I would liketo blame iton my back, discsbulging where theyought not, titaniumrods claiming theyhold the whole thingtogether, but Icannot be certainof that either onceI slip into sleep. I am temptedto stay up…
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MY ANNA
Along the banks of the barge canalin the village park, a manolder, his hair white, almosta mane, sits on the breakwallfeeding Wonder breadto the small flotilla of ducks.Tearing shreds of crustfrom a slice, he casts itonto the water and smilesas they bob for the crumbs.He tells them the storyof his life as thoughthey were his…
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THE RABBI
The old man peers at the yellowing book then places it on the arm of the chair. He gives the walker a sad, angry look, and still struggling, looks up in mocking prayer. Clutching the book, he limps to the table and sinks onto the chair, risking a fall that could reshatter his hip. Unable…
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DEMENTIA
He can remember it as though it was just yesterday. Actually it was just yesterday, but for him that had little to do with memory. Bits of his childhood would come flooding back: the city, the cousins who took him in for the few dollars his mother could offer. But his grandsons are a vague…
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ON THE SEDGE
My wife pauses by the placard in the nature preserve and tells me that what I have been calling grasses are in fact a sedge known as sawgrass. She points out the warning that it’s serrated on the edge and earned its name from those who grasped it without knowing or thinking first. I feign…
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LIBERACE WASN’T HERE
The white crested duck waddles from the pond headed for the path on which we take our morning walks. He is accompanied by wives or girlfriends, we prefer to think one of each for propriety’s sake. Want to tell him that Liberace tried that hairstyle years ago, and it never worked on bad hair days,…
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OCCLUSION
After the stroke he couldn’t remember much, was the woman in white who bathed him his wife or someone he slept with once before he had gotten married. Monogamy was a word that he remembered, though not its meaning, or why he had sworn to abide it. When the aide brought in the flowers, they…
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ALTERNATIVES
I would much rather be home, listening to Joan Osborne on the CD player, lying on the couch with you sleeping across the sofa curled under the cotton throw coiled against the winter battering the windows ca tucked into your knees. Instead, I sit on the bed CNN droning in the background and stare out…
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an old writer and his words 