Go outside

After hundreds of questions and answers, each followed by, “Why?” patience ran out. I pointed to the back door.
“Go outside. Play a while. I’ll be watching from the window.” I went to the sink and looked expectantly out the window. I turned on the water and made motions toward washing the breakfast dishes.
Jason slammed out [...]

Read Full Post »

My favorite

Eric Clapton’s Unplugged album was on my stereo yesterday. This is an old recording, but I never grow tired of it. I’ve listened to it thousands of times and it still finds a way back into my music rotation regularly. Hearing it set me to thinking about my favorite albums, the ones that never grow [...]

Read Full Post »

The sun

The sun is moving north. Soon the patio cover I added to my house last fall will begin its duties shading my east facing windows from the Southwest’s fierce sun. All winter, the low southern sun sent light and heat through those windows, but the world is turning into a position that will put the [...]

Read Full Post »

Viva . . .

Viva Naxos! I know I’m mixing my Spanish and Greek with that sentiment, but the island of Naxos is one of the most beautiful and charming places I’ve ever been. I savor the  early morning arrival of the fishing boats, the octopus drying in the sun during the day, the bus drivers with their eternal [...]

Read Full Post »

Sleet

Sleet fell gently
Soft as snow
In tiny round balls
Thrown by pixies.
Somewhere high above
The cloud pixies
Made mini-balls
To hurl to earth.
Like movie snow,
It didn’t melt.
It wasn’t wet.
It came and went
Without a trace.
For one elusive moment
We were caught in
A pixie snowball fight.
Please leave a comment with your first 50 words on the topic “sleet.”

Read Full Post »

Delight

Some people buy a pack of smokes every day. Not me. I buy exactly three bites of Turkish Delight every day. I hit the candy store near the mall entrance I take to get to my car after work. I pick them up to eat on the drive home. It gives me something to look [...]

Read Full Post »

Rain

Flying above the rain, watching the world below get soaked, and heading West. Soon the rain is gone, the clouds are few. The earth turns dry, almost white, sucked of all moisture. Into this arid and barren world, the plane sets down. The sky is brilliant blue. The sun is warm. It’s good to be [...]

Read Full Post »

Allen wrench

Are you, too,
Better acquainted
With the knuckle busting
Allen wrench
Than you want to be?
Are you, too,
Twitching your fingers
In an arthritic haze
After twisting too long
With too short a lever?
The sages say
Simpler is better.
Though this tool
Qualifies as simple
It fails as better.
Please leave a comment with your first 50 words on the topic “allen wrench.”

Read Full Post »

Music

Music, faint and indistinct, seemed to come from the ground beneath Greg. He lay flattened against the earth, spread-eagled on his back, and listened. The scrub and grass around him sang with a different song like an oboe or a flute. The air above him sang of strings—a cello perhaps. But the earth was deep [...]

Read Full Post »

Humid

“I like it here,” she said. “It’s humid. The air feels like silk on my skin.”
She spoke to a woman waiting in line with her at the baggage carousel. The woman smiled. “I live here. The humidity is okay in the Spring, but in July it’s stifling.”
“Ahh,” she said, “I’ll have to remember to stay [...]

Read Full Post »