Mountain Ash
I watch my neighbor Mary’s mountain ash tree like a hawk. Or more accurately, like a magpie, a robin, a cedar waxwing, though I’m not scouting a meal. Rather leaning into the elusive magic of…
Welcome Winter
Well, there are only so many words I can lay down on paper or, for that matter, speak out loud about my thoughts on winter. In the end, they boil down to NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! And still…
Fear
Where did you come from? And how do I cram you back into a box and seal the lid shut? How on earth did you–the demon I so vowed to slay–slither back into my world…
Big Marcella*
I was almost named for a woman called Marcella. The answer could have been a joyful “yes” and yet my parents dodged the question when I ask straight out. I’m forever puzzled. So I’ve taken…
Listening for Spring
At the sturdy 1950s rancher on Choteau Street, there were early May nights when I’d go to the garage to feed the resident rabbit tribe. And I heard the world growing. I’d come inside to…
The House on Choteau Street
On February 14, 1986, Dave’s bended knee marriage proposal arrived in his Valentine’s card. Without knowing his intentions or what his heart might say, the card I’d already written for him just said yes. Yes,…
The Lost Chord
“If you cannot teach me to fly, teach me to sing.” M Barrie quote from Peter Pan They’d tricked four- year- old me into thinking that a tonsillectomy would be a short adventure followed by…
Kay
Tiny – a dynamo at less than 100 pounds – Kay began and ended my summers for the last dozen years. I was an-almost-there, rest-up stop on her way from Hallock, Minnesota, to West Glacier….
Gary
love is a place ee cummings love is a place& through this place oflove move(with brightness of peace)all places yes is a world& in this world ofyes live(skilfully curled)all worlds Whitepages Inc. just emailed…
Honey Moon
I smile when I tell the story. And for too long never really saw that conversations quieted, that listeners heard the sow’s ear of pain I’d lovingly tried to disguise as a silk purse of…