Madeleine and the Cherry Blossoms
autumn rain on the pines reminds friends of songs that remind me of songs i’m surprised to realize i have forgotten heard countless times, year after year, most of my life unnoticed soundtracks to so many days so long ago leaves skitter-scratch down the wet street, a delicacy in the comings and goings of their … Read more
Flying Ointment
Three days out from the dark half as the crow flies, fattened on dogflesh and blighted summer corn a pockmarked face bleeding blue over the burnt mound; a voice thick as maple syrup, hoarse as chimney smoke stepping willy-nilly over those ley lines as if the past weren’t no matter and tomorrow ain’t ever coming … Read more
Nary a Crow Knows
- Come on, show us how you do it, James pleaded over the sound of the wren singing on the porch windowsill. – I really don’t think I want to know, said Thurston. – It’s something you just have to figure out, but once you do it is quite easy, Abbot assured them. – Well … Read more
Song for the Fallen
who so loves an open heart more than a surgeon? or an open hand more than a beggar? should we not cherish each just as much as they? would that we could unearth such things so cleverly interred buried beneath complacent soil entangled in lecherous roots thistle and sage … Read more
The House on Chestnut Street
People on Chestnut Street said the house was haunted. That didn’t bother Paul and Mary in the least. “They say that because it’s a big, rundown Victorian,” Paul said. “It just needs some love. Then it will be a home and not a house,” Mary said in that nonchalant way the young say such things, … Read more
The Sermon on Gnosis
(As delivered by The Reverend Emerson Whitbread, Indianapolis, Indiana, July 25th 1976) Brothers & Sisters Such Precious, Precious Souls you are in this very moment with your Minds & Hearts turned towards the Lord’s Goodness and the Heaven His Word has promised but the true Kingdom of God surrounds you unnoticed. My Children there are … Read more
A Purloined Sentiment
There is a line about her in a song that is not about her but another girl instead, a popular tune he overhears on the radio from time to time still. It was lifted word for word from a poem in his first collection, published two decades ago by a small university press. When first … Read more
