The iris stalks have stood sentinel for weeks now promising flowers.

Early Monday morning after the thunderstorm one lone periwinkle bloom shakes out its chiffon sleeves, singing a high note that pierces my heart.

By noon a sister bloom appears, an alto singing harmony a third down--the two as soul-lifting as any singing sisters from Nashville.

As I water in the evening the tenors  set in with perfect 3-part harmony, and I sit on the steps listening, opening to the big…

Have I ever been alive before in the spring when the redbud trees are blooming, and the wind piles magenta  petals up against the curb?

Then wine-red leaves appear, perfect hearts positing the notion of enduring-- for a season at least-- while the clusters of blooms drop and dissolve.

And, if I sailed to Europe, squeaked between Spain and Africa at Gibraltar, then followed the Mediterranean coast, eventually I would arrive at Aleppo in Syria, and it would be…

I fought against the bottle, but I had to do it drunk.

At 97, my blind and mostly deaf mother leans back in her chair to dictate to her caregiver, Sahalie, the letter that will go out to her five daughters, a discipline Mom has practiced faithfully since the girls grew up and moved out of her house many years ago.

“The Presbyterian church has taken our name off the list, probably because I did not send my check in time, but I don’t mind since he’s just a pompous old man who’s…

I don’t have a problem with burial if it’s done right.  No embalming, a simple shroud, then in the ground.  Although some cemeteries allow this, I’m looking for a spot on private land.  Please drop me into loamy soil and plant a walnut tree over me.  I can do a tree a lot of good through the years, until it is established.  Then there I’ll be, bones clenched in its roots, with the Carolina wren in its highest branches warbling my name.