Melba comes home from the grocery… She was walking away from the dair… He was there with a pregnant girl… He said to Melba, “Ma’m, is this… Melba told him it was margarine.

In 1920, my father, 16, was a guest of the British government. He was a prisoner of their forces occupying Ireland at the time, a group called the Black and Tans. One day he and seven o...

Every evening, up in my rooom, I try to finish a poem but Chicago is hot and it’s better outside,

A homeless man hangs himself from a tree at night in the city to close out the year. At dawn a passerby uses

Every morning before the sun comes up there’s a feral cat on our deck waiting for a can of Fancy Feast. It’s been that way for years.

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...

I’m on my way to Larry’s Place, a food pantry in the city. I park a block away because parking in front of Larry’s isn’t wise even if one drives

We do our best to avoid the Zika Virus. We smack mosquitoes and avoid tanned folks just back from two weeks in the tropics.

The mug of tea I drank at dawn, the tea that drove me to the train needs a refill.

Melanie was waiting for the light… at 12th and Broadway when a large… a big truck and 10 gallon hat roar… right beside her. His truck cab lo… above her old Buick. His stereo b…

Paul’s in his backyard on a Sunday afternoon barbecuing burgers. His wife and kids are hungry in the house.

Perhaps there should be a hard rock band called myasthenia gravis. A rare disease for which there is no cure, MG doesn’t kill anyone right away but unmanaged it’s hard to live with. In ...

In 1962 my father toiled in Quinc… two weeks, no more, and saw no blacks except for two young ladies who moved like swans

In your mind you hear words snarling all day long but no poem arrives. The words are locked