Proposal

It wasn’t a romantic proposal. It wasn’t a marriage proposal. It was a “let’s use each other for sex” proposal.
This was actually all I wanted, but I didn’t want to admit it. Needing sex was so embarrassing: I wanted to disguise it behind something more acceptable. I wanted him to pretend he loved me, just [...]

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Feet

Okay, I usually make stuff up, but this is true. I posted a photo of my grandchild’s feet on Flickr the other day. It almost immediately had over 40 views. What’s up with that? Have foot fetishists taken over the internet while I wasn’t watching?
Stuff I’ve had up there for months doesn’t have that many [...]

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Barn

No longer a safe haven for animals, the barn teetered on its base. It was filled with baled hay, even though bits and pieces of it sloughed off regularly, creating patterns of dusty light. You could almost see straight through from one side to the other if you picked the right hole in its skin.
The [...]

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Baggage

Helen wanted to write our pain and fear on little slips of paper. Then we would either burn the papers, or put them in helium balloons and let them drift away. I wanted something bigger, more spectacular. I wanted to actually burn my baggage in the form of a huge bonfire where I could toss [...]

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American Rituals

Black Friday is an interesting American ritual. As soon as we recover from the coma of all that turkey, we run the gauntlet of shopping. Succeeding at shopping on Black Friday is like a pioneer surviving a tornado in a covered wagon in the middle of Kansas. It shows you’ve got what it takes to [...]

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Best of Show

Sylvia brushed Mac’s white silky hair, all the while watching the other dog owners groom and prepare their dogs. Her terrier, a West Highland White, was sure to be Best of Show. She felt it in her bones. The other dogs might as well leave the building right now.
Fredrick Jamison, that colossal bore, came by [...]

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Waiting

In black jeans and a black sweater, Annie perched in the darkest shadow on her wide front porch and waited, gun beside her. By 3 a.m. she was drowsy, barely awake, when she heard him brushing aside branches and stomping on twigs. She caught her breath and picked up the gun, her heart flipping wildly. [...]

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Please be rude

There’s a new restaurant where you have to be rude to the waitstaff to get attention. If you are polite they ignore you. It’s a gimmick, of course, and people love to go there so they can be rude in a socially acceptable setting.
I think the whole idea stinks. Making rudeness a game just creates [...]

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Stop Light

It was magical. At a long stop light, we waited to turn left and cross above the highway—fluttering all around us were butterflies. A migration in progress right here by the overpass. Miniscule butterflies, buffeted by wind from the cars and the updraft from the traffic below, struggled to reach the other side of this [...]

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Homework Blues

I get off the bus
I’m draggin’ my bag
I climb them long stairs
Say hi to my cat
Get up and stretch, cat
Get up and stretch.
Sit down at the table
Start doin’ my homework
Do them word problems
Add and divide
Check the remainder, cat
Check the remainder.
I could ride my bike
I could play outside
Soon as I munch some Cheetos
Write ten spelling words
Wait [...]

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