My parents were far from preachy. They went to church separately and I went to the children’s service
Do I write in the third person or only in the first? Do my ideas reign supreme or do other ideas work as well? Do I know I’m always right
Pastor Homer is a jealous man and Opal gives him fits through 40 years of marriage dancing, laughing kissing other men
Elmo has spent 40 years cutting hair in a little shop in a country town along the Mississippi. Vegetables and meat
I turn the porch light on because it’s dark when I go out to find the morning paper. It’s still dark when I start back but when I’m on the porch I reach
In 1962, I was a caseworker, not a social worker, in the Cabrini-Green Housing Project in Chicago. In that era, the difference between a caseworker and a social worker was simple. A soc...
A bitter Christmas morning after a foot of snow last night. I shovel the sidewalk and make my way to the bird feeder. Before I can fill it, the wrens
It’s a kindergarten soccer team and Jack’s the biggest kid. His father is the coach. The team is undefeated but there’s a problem
I was warm and toasty, curled up, napping in amniotic fluid, without a worry when suddenly
The amount in every paycheck has a period in it. Those who get a paycheck every week dream about seeing a comma three spaces in front of the perio…
When Normal Norman takes his seat in Room 220 in Dumbach Hall to hear the eminent Dr. Engelhard… recite Beowulf again, Norman knows that he can suck
First leaves of autumn. Slow parachutes this morning almost at the curb. Donal Mahoney
Months roar by like weeks and weeks disappear like days, two coots in a bar admit on New Year’s Eve, reminiscing over a beer
It was nearly midnight and I was driving home after a long day when I realized there was no cat food in the house and I would be facing the same trio of feral cats bright and early at t...
It’s Ramadan and late one evening I walk by a mosque and hear little girls laughing on the sidewalk,