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An Afternoon

As he writes, without looking at the sea, he feels the tip of his pen begin to tremble. The tide is going out across the shingle. But it isn't that. No, it's because at that moment she chooses to walk into the room without any clothes on. Drowsy, not even sure where she is for…

The Palace

After the wedding, I rode to the reception in a shiny black car. I sat in the back seat between two other bridesmaids. I was sixteen and lightheaded with excitement. I had come up to Chicago on the train to be in my aunt's wedding. I wore a long satin dress, with an overskirt of…

Cadillacs and Poetry

New snow onto old ice last night. Now, errand-bound to town, preoccupied with the mudge in his head, he applied his brakes too fast. And found himself in a big car out of control, moving broadside down the road in the immense stillness of the winter morning. Headed inexorably for the intersection. The things that…

From Six Nights on the Acropolis

Saturday, late at night. I've returned from the outside. I know tomorrow's waking and the daily uphill climb. The streets were quiet; the mind light; the soul with all her windows open. Life's despair, sentiments condemned to end, man's wretchedness, the inevitable death – were circulating through the openings and didn't bother me. I am…

This Morning

This morning was something. A little snow lay on the ground. The sun floated in a clear blue sky. The sea was blue, and blue-green, as far as the eye could see. Scarcely a ripple. Calm. I dressed and went for a walk. Determined not to return until I took in what Nature had to…

Last Night On The Town

This is a chapter of a novel: TESTIMONIAL. Earl Loden, 52, gets cancer and he proceeds in a black humour type of way to try to redeem a messed up life. This particular section deals with his first night home from the university hospital after undergoing three weeks of chemotherapy. Lynda is his wife. Hal…

The Ballad of the Bullets

Late summer breathed from earth and stones,      Tall lupins probed the air, The Milky Way was combed-out light,      The sheen off midnight's hair. I watched a long time in the yard      The usual stars, the still And seemly planets, lantern-bright      Above our darkened hill. And then a star that moved, I thought,      And then it…