I clutch at certitude but remain open to surprise. The positive ones. Not a first episode of psychosis in your adult child. Or a diagnosis of cancer. These events flaunt my bargains with life. Walk the dog and play tennis. Eat plenty of garlic and greens and lentils. Follow a moderation in all things. Surely those choices buttress uncertainty. But… Read More
Waiting for biopsy result
You came for me curled up against my down-stairs window, waiting for the morning sun to warm your tattered coat. Through snow spattered basement glass, I spy old scars on the fur of your slender legs folded up beneath you Graceful as a nesting swan Your threadbare pelt like a carpet worn through. When I came to your side,… Read More
Captured Doe
Before the first light of dawn, I see her black silhouette along a neighbor’s back wire fence. Her back legs caught and twisted, she drapes across the top of the metal fence at an impossible angle. A graceful leap cut short, her nose now angles down, only inches above the snow banked ground. I suck in the chill air lingering in… Read More
Shelter From The Storm
We were heading into a tornado. Of course, we didn’t know that. Our daughter Susannah was returning for her last year at college in Grand Rapids. But a late summer thunderstorm hit us en route. Soon, it developed into a blinding deluge. White-knuckled, I pulled into the dorm parking lot. As we headed for the dorm’s entrance, sirens went off…. Read More
Last Words From My Mother’s Hair
My mother was never happier than right after she’d had her hair done. Done as in testing the center of a baked layer cake. Done as in having her hair washed, rolled, heated, styled, then secured with a shellacking of AquaNet. She told me once that her most innovative ideas came to her while sitting under the celadon dome… Read More
For the Birds
Last night it was eight degrees below. How do the chickadees keep warm? I know how the blue jays do. A friend told me he places peanuts in their shells on his deck for the squirrels. But an uninvited blue jay soon landed, lifting and shaking at least twelve shells before selecting the heaviest one with peanuts loaded in both… Read More