rejection
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Homecoming
My dear brotherstands in the kitchenwith his brand new brideand her three beautiful children,faces the horrid awkwardnessof my fatherwho is rooted in the hallway beyond,where he appears to be glued to the floor,stuck in a morass of religious allegiancedespite the… Continue reading
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Kiss Me
"Kiss me," he said, "or I shall die,die of a battered heart." "Oh, please," she said. "Your drama putsthe cart before the horse.You shall not die; you'll just be sad;I've often trod this course.'I'll die! I'll swoon! The bucket kickwithout… Continue reading
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The Crone
"Witch! Beldame! Crone!"–these names they called her. She knew the truth:age had deserted and defiled her–hunched, shrunken, otiose to most. Yet the owl knew her wisdom,knew itself to be the bird of Minervaand she the Minerva of this small midwestern… Continue reading
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You Are Them, They Are You
Gays, Republicans, illegal immigrants, Jews, Muslims, Baptists, the mentally ill, the homeless…anyone you mistrust or dismiss or find foreign, strange or threatening, you are them and they are you, in a very real, absolute, spiritual sense. Whatever distinctions you've invented… Continue reading