Her worn collar long faded and stained used to be hot summer pink with lime-colored palm trees dancing ‘round Set against a pale yellow-white coat – she might as well have been wearing diamonds Later came the grass and mud, chocolate (swiped pastry) and a few garden remnants… over time each stain became an embedded…
There was something magical – and fragile – about the tissue papers on which we corresponded (marked PAR AVION) and the interminable weeks between each letter Post World War II the world was trying to rebuild, heal we (Yukiko and I) were part of that process – two children: one Japanese, one American Our shared…
At the café overlooking the valley (and the next perched village) locals sit and drink – ask a stranger among them, ‘Why are you here? No one comes to this place even if they know it exists – why are you here?’ Navigating narrow passages (cobbles uneven under foot and slippery when wet) steadied by…
Second Sunday forecast snow. 915 – a tiny flake? another. more . 930 – only barren trees shrouded in a clouded sky. I’d been so – expectant, if only for a moment –and, had already told Maisie. She remembers ‘first snow’ (so long ago) silently falling through the darkness sensing it, barking till we went…
Sticky notes that framed my computer fill the waste basket – one by one – like fall’s last leaves dropping from trees (the business year is winding down) Out back little jenny-wren has taken up residence under the patio table, darting for cover when we open the door well sited near the feeder, yet nearly…
Side by side
They hung against what
I imagined were cool stone walls
Against the antique oak rocker in the alcove leans a needlepoint begun decades ago (18th century American primitive re-created in my hand and style with woolen yarns and carefully selected stitches) Cart roads lead from the ‘big’ house, past out buildings and wild vines heavy with grapes (Norton?) – down at the river, a sailing…
Cats? No more. more cats? No no more cats! Please. Traded: one good airplane for tiny flea and pneumonia ridden kitten it must have been the heat – and humidity of late July Maisie the dog licks, cajoles, barks plays the daily game of chase while we sit and watch Doomed by birth into an…
In the foggy Seattle dusk it was easy to ignore the silent wending through our maze of legs Neighbors gathered, discussing the somethings – and nothings – of daily life She seeking only warmth nourishment, safety from predators When the inevitable question was carelessly loosed into the night laughter couldn’t disguise the response – No…
The snow must have begun while we were sleeping, for outside the sheerest of veils already stretched from Heaven to earth. Trees and fences softened, and land blurred into water – barely visible geese passed overhead, merged with the mist and disappeared – all, silently and leaving no print on the ground. Yet still they…
In winter the blackest of nights cloak the heavens exploding their brilliance Millions of unseen shards fall earthward through the atmosphere – the air so dense, it takes one’s breath away At first light gnarled and scattered waste of seasons past glisten for a moment under last night’s carpet of frost – Soon, all will…
Tall and thin, he leans against a jet, sun bouncing off the carrier deck beyond, a peaceful expanse of South China Sea something quietly tired in his smile In other pics boys far too young flash vibrant smiles as they climb about aircraft – Tanned and shirtless a young tousled-hair plane captain laughs at the…