Whose Treasure

They counted on easy agreement—the natural gas company bigwigs. They’d planned to bury their pipeline beneath those Missouri River shallows, slide it under badland slumps, save miles. They needed a fistful of permits including our…

What’s Left

As I write, here at 73,  I’m down one breast, a toe, a tooth, my tonsils, my uterus, the hearing and balance nerves in my left ear, the crisp vision that intact macula provide, and…

Ah Sweet Mystery of Life

Swear to god, for all too long, I owed my philosophy of life to Rogers and Hammerstein, Victor Herbert, Mario Lanza, George Gershwin and—the Church of the Brethren. In the beginning, of course, I attended…

Gravity

At no point that I remember, have I willingly launched myself from earth. Offered my body up to an ocean wave, catapulted off a diving board or lifted both feet at once and hopped into…