Written with my Thursday group with a list of melodramatic prompts: in this economy, is this why fate brought us together?, there is no escape from destiny, that’s just what_______would have said, this is odd, so it has come to this, so let it be written so let it be done, but at what cost?, as … Continue reading Natalie’s Assignment
Written with my Thursday group with the prompts: hard to be human, when she refused him he. . ., the loneliness, run out of. . ., viscous, a large cat’s body but not a cat, challenge, everybody likes a puppy, think the unthinkable and tell me a story, the sky you were born under, laughter is … Continue reading Unthinkable
Written with my Thursday night group with the prompts: Georgianna, I heard you, love out loud, she did okay, bombs against bamboo, this is what it sounds like when a dove cries, jiminy cricket, we haven’t done this in a long time, she strolled into the shop, removed her jacket, what does your family think, smells, … Continue reading Georgianna
Written with my Thursday night group with the prompts: he spotted me, stronger investment, dangerous, everybody knows your name, raining each day, water gets hot, warning-this bag is not a toy, dynamite, one muddy boot, luggage, tickle of dew on my toe, bright night air, out the door He spotted me at the department store pocketing … Continue reading Red
In celebration of the season, I bring you the re-publication of a favorite Valentine's Day, "isn't it romantic" tale. Enjoy! Miranda painted her face with forty-seven different shades of lipstick, browns and corals on her eyelids and forehead, hot flamingo pinks across her cheeks like tiger stripes, and deep reds on her lips and chin. … Continue reading The Sensitive Man and The Chocolate Chip Cookies
As I was walking the levee trail, I met a rabbit who offered me a cigarette. The rabbit wore a necktie and a suit jacket with shoulder pads. He had grayish white fur—in fact his entire body, his clothes, his cigarette case, even the sky behind him-were a matte gray like a black and white movie, … Continue reading In These Times
Beginning Written with my Thursday night group with the prompts: tumbleweeds, fruit, this morning I could smell _______, no one seemed upset, just move one foot, stories I don’t want or need to hear again, things my mother told me, I was never meant to, raisins, eaten for protein, he began to chant, knowledge is power, … Continue reading Beginning
A year ago Jean had a love affair with a man who moiled the river. He was a lanky man, with a day’s growth of stubbly dark brown beard on his ruddy cheeks, a man with an easy laugh. He’d come from a different era, a ghost from the gold rush, whom Jean had met in the … Continue reading Allow the Magic
Written with my Thursday night group with the prompts: it looked impossible; with your warm hands; trusted; my sister from_______; a hidden passage; use your words; I attract mosquitos like ambivalent men; quick; exciting; but you don’t understand how much I cried; wild things; on the cusp; rapture; apology accepted, trust denied My sister Marina came … Continue reading My Sister Marina
I first wrote and published this piece several years ago when Barack Obama was president and John Boehner was speaker of the house, and we were in the midst of a federal government shut-down. It was a time of great anxiety, partisanship and divisiveness. Things being what they are, I decided the beginning of this … Continue reading A New Year Prayer for Healing Division
