"Mr. Dalton, I could tell you that Jesus is all the life insurance my wife and I need, but something tells me that wouldn't stop you from continuing your pitch to us."

They were a handsome couple who fit the profile, both white-haired, apparently healthy, skeptical yet friendly, and Jim was beginning to suspect they'd let him in as much to sell him something as to listen to his spiel.  "You can't lose with this, sir, even if, uh..."--he hesitated to use the terminology, but he needed…

I came across this picture the other day and was struck by how odd it was; one might gather it’s a picture of Hitler youth relaxing along the Rhine; sad to say it is I with my two brothers. As to which one of the alien-duo I might be, I think the middle one; I tend to want to see my brother’s square head in family shots as opposed to my egg- shaped skull but then who knows for sure.…

A pair of robins built a new nest outside the window where I write. The nest is well camouflaged in a tall cedar bush that I bonsai’d a year ago. The nest is perfectly formed: rough on the outside, smooth and comfortable on the inside, where two sky blue eggs rest, waiting.  

Blue jays pay as much attention to the nest as the eggs’ parents, but from a greater distance. I watch the blue jays with as much trepidation as an expectant father. When the jays work up enough nerve to approach…

"Look, man," the vampire told me, "that folklore is bunk, you know, the part where they're sayin' we gotta kill nightly to keep our cheeks rosy and all that good shit, like we're some kind of junkies or something. I mean, c'mon, that stuff's for the grandmas: there's nine of us livin' in town that I know of, which,  give us one year that's 3,200 corpses and change, just lyin' around in the alleys and shit and--think of the stink in the breezeway, you know?

"I sip and tip like a…

When they took the hood off, I was blinded by the floodlight set up in the room, once my sense of sight righted I accidentally jumped at the presence of Menschen Metzger, even though I had pursued this meeting for nearly a year, he was not at all what one would expect of the most notorious domestic terrorist in the history of this country, Kaczynski be damned, I mean Metzger was a real life fucking super villain and yet here he stood at an unremarkable height maybe an inch taller…

I’m a coward. 

Thing is, three days before Lunar Festival I hid, hid because I was marked, which meant I was to be the Savior for this Cycle, which meant I was to be the sacrifice, a piece of meat to be carved up on a cold slab of granite.

 Such bullshit being marked, nothing to do with a lottery,…

Fifteen hundred trillion miles in two seconds, the blue giant Bellatrix, a vast blistering ball of energy, the sort of place where Gods get created, where the laws of physics are written and  re-written in the fiery plasma of an infinite pen, but it wasn’t what I was looking for, so I jumped on.

Two million light years, far…

"Apologies fer not bein' 'ere at my reguhlar time, darlin', I's a gone to the doctor, ya see.  He's a nice, young 'Merican doctor, he axe me how you's doin' 'n I says you's good, spirit-wise.  Hoo, he just laughed, darlin', gotta real kick outta me 'n says, 'Scottie, you's a good sense 'bout all this, but how's she a doin' health-wise, ya know, is 'er mind still a wanderin' 'n all?' "

Abruptly, Marie's weak hand gripped the arm rest, so briefly, so faintly that no one except…

Building on the premise or hope really, that the weekend would only improve from the drive in dreary Boston evening rush hour traffic, we carry the last of the provisions from the jeep to the somewhat remote cottage rented for the long awaited 4 day weekend, nestled deep in the Green Mountains and relished that there was no phone, cell, TV or even Internet Service to disrupt our anticipation of rekindled carnal bliss;  and we had electricity and even hot and cold running water!

To…

So in the service of attribution, I research references to the "grey-eyed governess" online, fully respecting the lyrical inspiration of Cymbals Eat Guitars' Joseph D'Agostino (iffy band name notwithstanding) but also suspecting that he'd copped the reference from some arcane literary source.  I mean, it sounds like something from James' Turn…

From the high branches they rain, alighting on the earth and burrowing, down and further down.

Nourished over the years by the roots of the very trees where they were conceived and hatched.

What trigger is it that calls them back into the light, to make the long climb into peril and ecstasy?  Perhaps it is the song itself, tones in search…

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…

Jay K. was walking through a wood, breaking parched twigs underfoot, rustling brittle leaves recently fallen from bare limbs. He tried to open his senses to nature's paradoxical courses: the smell of fresh air mixed with decaying organics; the sound of flowing water he dared not sip; a cool breeze on his hot face. 

He saw a deer standing motionless in a clearing, staring at him, then bolting away so fast he wondered if it had been there to begin with -- or if it had been apparition.…

As my son pulled my right arm urgently, pleading with me in baby-speak to come with him, my left hand was squeezing hers, while my split-level brain tried to comprehend how things had gone downhill so fast.

"Don't you want to eat your dinner; aren't you hungry?"

Her age-worn skin resembled a Dali painting, and red blotches covered her arms, although she tried to cover them with the starchy hospital gown. "Ack, I don't like it. I'm not eating that."

I knew I was grasping…

It's been a couple of years since my seven year old and I discussed how mistakes are made, how we sometimes blindly navigate through life. 

I only remember her looking out the car window as we drove along Sweetwater Boulevard, saying as we passed a Catholic church:  "We learn as we go.  We learn as we travel.  Because every country is different.  And every day is like a new country."

They stuck me back in the Cretaceous Epoch and said they'd be back to pick me up later, soon as I'd gathered the data they needed.

Sixty-five million BC, what a trip: T-Rexes, Triceratops, Gigantosauri, and talk about Kings of the Jungle and shit, but man, they were dumber than plywood.

And wouldn't you know it, they came to me with their problems and stuff, the usual snivels, i.e., the climate is changing, the swamp's drying up, and they've all got brains the size of…

After wrapping one of three 19 strand stainless steel guy wires tight to the turnbuckle, and watching unblinkingly upward and wobbling only slightly, I moved quickly to the second tie down point, to straighten and strengthen the 12” x 12” x 12” triple mast partially erect tower, as it beings to rise into the sky. 

Each 35 pound 10’ section is elevated cautiously with the aide of a Gilley Pole, which is a pole, rope and pulley arrangement, by one strong son of gun up to the tower…

He wrote in a way that she absolutely loved.  She would ask him to read to her as she closed her eyes, the syllables moved like music, painting vivid pictures in her head and taking her places inside of his.



Today he was reading to her poetry, the poems that rhymed were her favorites even if the wording came across as morbid.  "The seeds of needs shall cultivate in our chests,"  he read, "Tendrils begin sprouting, intertwining around our necks."…

I saddled into Richmond via Delta, flew through downtown streets where homeless weavers - bottles out - lurched on the curb. I saw the row houses - oh their beautiful creak - endured the bumpy wintered streets, walked the leafy grids, slept like a baby. The housing I sought never showed any interest and I took note. Later, I floated through the Wesselmann exhibit at the museum and ate up real food. I crossed the James and…

Three women sat around a table, all of them poking at house salads with their forks, rolling cherry tomatoes over a bed of romaine, none of them taking a bite, each one afraid the others will break the silence and she'd be expected to respond with a mouth full of food.

Two women were nursing iced teas, one was guzzling white wine like water, her only communication was with…