Fred jerks back in his recliner as his wife puts him on the spot and asks his opinion about a dress she bought on sale at a fancy place for a great price…

Day and night preachers hawk the Message of the Cross on television. Once a month they pause and beg for money for

It’s a simple procedure I’ve done for years many times a day. You’ll go home this afternoon, take it easy over the weekend,

In a yard abandoned this winter when the owner moved grass is growing this spring

A boy, maybe 5, dancing in the candy aisle of a megastore at 6 a.m., a month before Hallowee… is overjoyed by the harvest on every shelf, his caramel skin

A corner sentinel for 40 years, Charlie’s Diner is the only landmark in a neighborhood of blue-collar people who love their burgers thick

I don’t see her often since she died but when I do it’s eerie over there at dawn or dusk.

Widow in a rocker pets her calico cat long strokes slowly. With the cat purring and the widow humming

First time seeing this doctor, a specialist. Took a month to get an appointment. The waiting room’s packed. I grab the last seat

His cardiologist says Fred’s doing well for a man of 80. It won’t be his heart that kills him.

I can’t speak for the women attending this conference on Homeland Security. They’re scholars, too, brought here for their expertise.

The beauty of gray I never noticed until the other day I saw this mockingbird, a quiet beauty in gray,

Strapped to his bed in the nursing home, he tells every nurse who comes in and tightens his straps

Despite the digital holocaust of computers and cell phones, Newberry Library remains the Vatican of books with the right sounds,