I have a friend, old and retired, who keeps busy helping the poor. Let’s call him Ted because he wants to remain anonymous. Some of his ideas, he says, wouldn’t make many of his neighbo...

Niagara Falls her silver hair so long it bounces off the swan

My father never talked much about religion but he went to Mass every Sunday, the 6:30 Mass where few people would be and he wouldn’t have to deal with friends and neighbors. His contrib...

I don’t know why my wife and I are up at four in the morning sitting in recliners drinking coff… staring at half-hour commercials claiming to cure everything

In the paper this morning a woman in the suburbs complained she has to eat too much steak too often because her husband

An imam should say eternity lasts too long to sit by the fire Donal Mahoney

On their 50th anniversary Sammy gave Dolly a necklace and told his darling wife that if they lived long enough one of them would wake

After all these years my wife at the ironing board, perfect in panties. Donal Mahoney

In our tent we hear whippoorwills happy to see dawn dismiss the night Donal Mahoney

They’re getting older, five brothers and sisters, all with degrees, jobs, families, nice homes, good lives, happier than most except when they must

We write the stories of our lives between the bookends of birth and death They stay on the shelf

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…

Bill’s a conservative upset that Meals on Wheels and Medicaid face possible cuts in America’s budget. He yells to colleagues

If smiles had echoes all the world would hear Grandma’s bouncing off the stars Donal Mahoney

On holidays I hear from Paul, who’s 80 if a day, who may have won his war on poverty without help from his friends. He won’t accept a cent.