Dear Sergio: The Great Blue Heron flew over the house shortly before dawn this morning with its raucous announcement: the others will be returning to the tall dead trees in the swamp to begin the spring refurbishing of the nests...large constructs of dead branches lined with fine twigs … [Read more...] about Where We Live
Words in Progress
Leaving
LEAVING Moving, slowly at first, a walk further than usual, earlier than before though not quite at dawn, a loose leash of daylilies at the ankle, then a night under Orion disappearing, each horizon a new mote in the eye. Moving along is how, looking back, I left. … [Read more...] about Leaving
Maple Syrup
ACTUAL GRACE The earth is beaten into dull stuff. A smudge of sun rides under the bellying sky. Winter is finishing slowly, like sap over a wood fire. At Phil's Restaurant, breakfast customers hash over the Town Report. We still have our say. We still sing our annual hymn of republic … [Read more...] about Maple Syrup
The Quilt
THE QUILT The auctioneer turns her. The men wait on a corn planter and a wooden box of assorted nails. She is offered from the porch of her own house. We pluck at her skirt. What is she to me? I am waiting for that box of nails. What is she to me? The quilt … [Read more...] about The Quilt
The End
We talked as though we were strangers, side by side on the deck of a boat near Jeffrey's Ledge on a summer Sunday; but the subject was familiar. We pulled in flashy mackerel, apricot squid, tossed them back. We hauled up dogfish; we caught the same ones over and over. They were … [Read more...] about The End
Retro Travel
In 1989, Charter and I embarked on what would become an annual road trip. Somewhere in North America. In a Corvette. This unlikely odyssey began in, of all places, Reims, France when, on the way home from a trip to Paris financed by our year of not smoking, we happened upon a quirky car … [Read more...] about Retro Travel
