Homer’s a chair arranger who works in meeting rooms on 30 floors in a building tall as Trump Tower. At least it looks that tall to him

Black flag on the lawn falls in pieces from the sky. Starlings in command. Donal Mahoney

Things reach a certain age, an age at which things don’t work the way they once did. The battery in your car,

Blooming for one day a lily welcomes the sun. Bumblebees drop in. Donal Mahoney

You love your grandson, this blue bundle in your arms. There’s no doubt about that. He has peaches for cheeks and the sky’s in his eyes

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

For some nervous wrecks a pill or two might help. For others

Paul’s not a veteran of Vietnam but he goes there in his dreams to watch his brother Tim walk in hazy streams sprayed with Agent Orange before he

I’m not saying my father hated the English, God forbid. If he were still alive, he’d hate to hear me say that. He’d correct me right away and say he didn’t hate the English. Truth be to...

Otis was once a monk who took no vows, was free to leave the abbey and eventually he did. I met him over chicken wings

Smitty isn’t Schulte. He doesn’t drive a Cadillac and doesn’t hit his wife often any more. Schulte, on the other hand,

Walking very slowly, ancient Wall… right behind his ancient Molly who… stepping down the garden path, her first time out in weeks, wobbly still on her new knee.

Everyone who has money should drop it in a vat and anyone who needs money should take what they need a Swede, a Dane and two

The call comes in to the police station. It’s a small town and the voice at the library says “He’s at it again.”

Harvey at 80 is losing his hearing. He can’t hear his wife when she talks, a symphony lost.