Friday Morning
During one of my earlier quiet phases – one of those one- or two-week unintentional hiatuses from writing when I wasn’t sure what the point was or just felt tired and confused
Purpose Like a Ham Sandwich
There’s no way I can get this right. Quite literally, no way. So instead, I get up and water the plants. That’s how I’m beginning a poem of the same title. It won’t go very far – so few of them do. Already, I’ve walked away from the poem like a half-eaten sandwich. From a…
A Warm Day and a Tight Leash
It’s not often that I get to say that it’s a gorgeous morning here in State College. Just a week ago we got 2-3 inches of snow. Yesterday started off cold and gray and rainy. Today feels like the type of day I have been waiting for for weeks. I’ve been sitting in the morning…
April Sunshine, Wednesday Afternoon
My neighbor is older – maybe in his 70s. He gets around fine. He still mows his lawn. His white t-shirt hangs off of hunched and thin shoulders. His hair is white and he usually wears a ball cap. His name is Tom, but it could just as well be John or Dave or Hank….
Not Enough People and All that I Need
I say in lectures in 1996 that fifty percent or more of American marriages go bust because most of us no longer have extended families. When you marry somebody now, all you get is one person. I say when couples fight, it isn’t about money or sex or power. What they’re really saying is, “You’re…
Timequake
If there is a god, he sure hates people.…That there are such devices as firearms, as easy to operate as cigarette lighters and as cheap as toasters, capable at anybody’s whim of killing Father or Fats or Abraham Lincoln or John Lennon or Martin Luther King Jr., or a woman pushing a baby carriage, should…
Crabs in a Bucket
She waited for a break in the conversation to jump in and attack. I had been explaining a tax return (as best as I can) to her friend or partner, but hadn’t gotten very far in my explanation before she wagged her finger towards me. She demanded to know why she didn’t get a certain…
My Dog After His Walk
Hey Matt, Matt… h… hey Matt, that was a good walk, huh? Wasn’t it? That was a good walk, huh Matt? Um and um hey Matt, Matt… Matt, remember… remember that one time? Remember, when…? when after our walk, you… you … you gave me all the treats instead of putting them away… ? remember?…
One man in his time…
A long and lean woman stood naked in the doorway. The faint light from the kitchen outlined her silhouette casting the rest of her in shadow – almost spectral in the 3am night just before she came back to bed. Later, this same woman, someone I once dated, was with me as I submitted fake…
Sick Day
By 3pm on Wednesday, I knew it was coming. I could feel that soreness in my throat that walks a few steps ahead of its slacker cousins the stuffed up nose and groggy head. I was getting sick. Dammit. What started as “oh, I know this feeling…” steamrolled into certainty shortly after dinner. It was…
Early Spring, Still Winter
It’s too cold for this late in March. Traces of snow from last night’s dusting line the grass where the trees cast their shadows. The gravel drive, pocked with puddles caught in early spring’s freeze-thaw see-saw indecision, muddies my shoes and slips underfoot. Even the sun and clouds play coyly as they dance with trepidation….
College Life
Yesterday morning I woke up with a tune in my head. It wasn’t a song I knew, but I kept hearing this repeating melody. I briefly thought about a gentleman who needs to stop by the office, but the tune returned, along with another one. On Sunday night I went to concert, and I’m pretty…