It may have been the devil himself who prompted the kids in my schoolyard back in 1947 to chant “Patsy Foley’s roly-poly from eating too much ravioli.” At first, no one could remember w...

They laugh at him because he’s weak by their standards but they don’t realize they’ve signed a

Bill would come every Sunday to his mother’s house after a tough divorce. He’d bring his laundry for his mother to do and then he’d devour the roast beef dinner she always made for him....

Like that broad in an apricot bra hanging over the sill of her tenement window, the sun is over me now, its nectar laughing and falling.

The problem doesn’t lie in not knowing. It lies in our not seeking him because when we die we meet him and we’re blinded by

Fred jerks back in his recliner as his wife puts him on the spot and asks his opinion about a dress she bought on sale at a fancy place for a great price…

You drive down the same country road every day at dawn and see through plumes of dust

After World War II before television, before women had tattoos before men wore earrings, I was a child in a world

When ancient Elmer was young and dashing and on the prowl, he would wait for a phone call about love or anger from someone important to him at the time. Over the years more than a few w...

These are old people retired and driving slowly from small apartments in economy cars getting out on canes

Bill hates to go to parties but he loves to go to wakes. One of the advantages of being old, he says, is that there are fewer parties to go to but a lot more wakes. At parties he finds ...

If you write with a quill, ballpoint pen or typewriter, you’re a lucky soul. But if you use a computer and write far better than

A little boy from the city down on the farm for a day wanders away to look at the sheep and finds a bull

Martin, a very senior citizen, wants to get a bucket and knife and go hunt up some greens in a field in Alabama. But in spite of his yearnings for a big bowl of greens, he knows his wif...

Far away and long ago stuff happened in Gramps’ life that he’d like to forget but he can’t, even though he can’t always remember what he had for breakfast, lunch or dinner. But anything...