A Scribner’s Tale       Brooke leans forward, her eyes softening with a deep, empathetic warmth. She reaches out, gently resting her hand on my arm. “John, when you told me about those bitches from the previous agency who took the belt to you, I cried for you. Just thinking of what that tough leather on […]

Puppy Love at the Skating Rink      Her heart was a glass of haunted roses, though at thirteen, I only vaguely understood what that meant. My family carried the heavy, weatherworn memories of Ellis Island, dancing an immigrant waltz they’d learned on the shores of America upon arrival. But my personal history began and ended […]

Rainbow Gathering      The northern hills of the Kisatchie—looming!—lyrically, mind you, in a wild, howling, wind-whipped abandon, humping up out of the Louisiana flatlands like great sandstone whales breaching beneath an Arcadian sky! We are out on the edge, the very frayed and frazzled perimeter of the American grid, rolling up to the Backbone Trail […]

A Rice Paper Tigress Named Gloria The Symphony of the Campus Green     This is a high school where I am a substitute teacher for young pianists, flutists, and organists who birth notes with fingers on fire. During their practice sessions, I usually just melt into my soma zone, letting them strum my heart with the […]

An Old Gramophone Lullaby for the Midnight Orchid of the Bowery      I love Central Park in the Fall. The city feels fresher and cleaner for some reason. As I walked past the Zoo, I heard a kid crying. I remembered what it was like to be a kid. But that was back in the […]