Fiction, Writing, Articles, Essays, Reviews.
I didn’t play “Cowboys and Indians” as a kid. I never had a cowboy hat or cowboy boots. I grew up in a city, not the countryside. Other than a few Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns—“The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” “High Plains Drifter”—I paid little attention to the genre. So when Larry McMurtry won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for his epic western novel “Lonesome Dove,” I barely noticed. At the...
My regular doc I see annually is old school and old country. Until a few years ago, he operated a solo private practice as an internist, although to survive in the U.S. healthcare dystopia, he’s now been swallowed up by a larger health network, as has almost every other physician and medical practice. But he still manages to run his practice as if he’s from another era. When I was first...
I’m packing my toiletry bag for the weekend visit with my parents when I realize my pills are gone. How could I have run out and not noticed? When was the last time I took one? Weeks ago. I haven’t needed them, not since returning from our vacation. But now I miss them, not because I’m craving but because I want to be prepared. I want my line of defense, just in case. I hold the plastic bottle...
Yes, I went to the Spectrum Theater to see “Train Dreams” the other night, but I attended with a heavy heart: The Delmar Dad’s Movie Club lasted exactly one year, and then, without warning, blew up spectacularly. First, Jimmy broke up with us via text: “We did a year and it was good. But I’m not into continuing.” Paul and I were shocked, I tell you, although maybe we shouldn’t have...
I haven’t written a blog post in some time. I’ve been on the road without my laptop for the first time. Now I’m back at my desk. I don’t have a reputation as an avid traveler, nor have I ever been a travel writer, but I just returned from Peru with Harriet and Owen, and I’m processing my impressions. One thousand years ago, Peru was the center of Incan culture, specifically the city of Cusco...
One is black and white striped, like a zebra with gills, another is green and flat as a lily pad. They fin past me, undulating in the clear water. Pink and beige corals fleck the ocean floor. A cartoonish blue and yellow fish with bulging eyes loiters beneath a rock, its mouth puckering for invisible kisses. At the villa where we’re staying we bought a book with pictures of the fish and their...
Lyrics: KleinMusic: Aronowitz Coming Over Coming over to your placeWhatever the consequenceCan’t wait a minute longerSitting on this fence Coming over to your placeUnder a clever pretenseMight have left my life thereUnless that’s too intense What happened to our special daysEach passed in luminanceSaid we’re meant for each otherOr was that just coincidence Coming over to your place, whatever the...
I had yesterday’s “No Kings” protest on my calendar for weeks, knowing I would attend. I told myself the day might prove to be a turning point for our country: that any incited violence would cause Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would serve as the final nail in the coffin destroying whatever democratic norms and free speech we have remaining; or it would prove to be a peaceful...
We’ve all pressed the reset button to restart a device or system that is unresponsive or malfunctioning. It’s a go-to fix for a multitude of issues. I’ve gotten better at resetting myself when I start to malfunction. When anxious or emotionally drained or feeling lost, I’ve learned to pause, step back, and intentionally return to a clearer, more balanced version of myself, more prepared to handle...
After she leaves for work, I change into running gear and strap my watch on. Some days I run randomly around the neighborhood, up and down blocks of neatly arranged houses, skimpy lawns covered with frosted leaves that never got raked, streets lined with parked cars. Other days I run down to the river, the current gray or blue depending on the sky, along the break wall as far as the rowing club...
In this dark moment in our country’s history, stained by a corrupt administration that lies to, threatens, extorts, and punishes its own people, that cleaves divisions among us, that celebrates bigotry and cruelty, that instead of serving people it cuts services to people in need—within this anxious moment, there is still sublimebeauty, there is October. Is the difference only that one is human...
We actually did it: The Delmar Dads three-person movie group attended a film for 12 consecutive months to support the independent Spectrum Theater. It wasn’t all smooth sailing. On two occasions, one of us (me) had to seek special dispensation from club officers to move the night from the second Wednesday of the month to the second Tuesday. In addition, one of us (not me), didn’t attend the July...
A police cruiser pulled up and stopped at our corner today. My heart began to race. I wondered if I should run out the back door and jump the fence and disappear into the ravine. I thought maybe the police officer had come to arrest me. That’s because I’m against fascism, and the authoritarian fascist president of our country just declared Antifa (short for anti-fascist) a “Domestic Terrorist...
I was talking with a friend of my own vintage, who said all of the big decisions in life are over for us. He was referring to the decisions we make as we lift the anchor on our childhoods and begin charting our course as adults. We made our decision about education years ago—whether to attend college and what to study. We’ve chosen career paths (we’re both writers). We’ve decided who to marry...
Tanya: A soccer player on the fields adjacent to the tennis club reached out to me through the website and said that last week he kicked a ball that went over the fence onto the courts during a time when the club was closed and the gates were locked. I heard you might have been involved. Me: Yes, the other day I found a neon yellow soccer ball inside our fence, and so the next evening when we...
For most of my life I’ve had only a few friends. Now I have added to that roster. Not that I’ve become more social (I’ve become less, if you can imagine that), but I’ve expanded my definition of friendship. I have local friends who help me feel anchored to my community. Historical friends that have been deeply entwined in the fabric of my life for decades. Writer friends who understand that...
Today was the first day in a while I’ve gone out to tend the gardens and property. I realized how behind I was. I pulled out and pruned. I trimmed and cut. I got covered in milkweed milk. I arranged rocks. Watered. Fixed a fence. Dumped wheelbarrows of organic debris over the ravine. Turned the compost pile. Sometimes I do all that work and forget to pay attention to the beauty surrounding...
The Movie Club went throwback this month and we saw Jaws, the iconic thriller/suspense blockbuster celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. I’m extremely familiar with Jaws. I happen to live with someone who has said Jaws is her favorite movie, and she went to see it numerous times in the summer of 1975 when it premiered. Since then, we’ve seen the film, or parts of it, many times. So there...
Do you ever wonder how often you think of the ones you love the most? Certainly, anyone you’re living with—a partner, a child, a parent, a friend—you think of every day, at least once a day, because they’re right in front of you as a reminder. What about the parent or friend who died months or years ago? The old friends who promised to stay in touch? Or the person you were once romantically...
I’ve been enjoying the highly structured form of poetry called the Villanelle. Here’s a new entry. You can also read Villanelle #1 and Villanelle #2. My desire is to plant one more treeAn oak or maple that adds a ring each yearThough under its shade I will never be For my children and theirs I bequest tenderlyA vibrant magnolia or dogwood souvenirMy desire is to plant one more tree...
