Every day the same people at the same table at the rear of the cafeteria. The maiden, 35 at least, is gray at the temples,

Her corded belt python tight around a tiny waist makes her blooms bigger brighter as they unfold

When Bernie wakes at 6 a.m. there’s a piano on his chest and Erroll Garner’s playing “Mist… Sinatra’s on the headboard improvising lyrics

The two weeks I spent in that small town on assignment, I saw no blacks except for two older women regal in every way,

And so I’ll tell old Max, and maybe he will listen, it’s time to call the plumber in and tell him,

Harry and Grace had a carousel of marriage while it lasted. There were arguments galore and children by the score or so the neighbors thought

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

The guillotine dropped between you and a friend over coffee and small talk. The first time it dropped it was someone who said

She lives by a lake. After a heavy snow she looks out the window and sees black swans in a long, straight line

There’s always something. Like the growth you found under your arm showering this morning but you decided to go

A spindly young fawn wanders away from its doe. Coyotes must eat. Donal Mahoney

twenty-four houses on the same block everyone inside milling about one lost a job

Old lady on a park bench hunkered down babushka and shawl snow and wind dancing everywhere

I look in the mirror and I’m not… Where did I go? I don’t know so I look around and see my wife with the dogs and kids. Not one of them sees me.

There are poems everywhere but you have to find them, a teacher told my class long ago. I was a kid sitting at a desk, cowlicks sprouting from my scalp,