Sheep are by a goat while cattle are like swine, prodded, ye… cattle go by hammer while swine are by the hind leg hung then swung about to spigot.

They were always close Mom and Faye No father around Mom painted flowers Faye planted them

One by one young nurses crisp in their white caps bring the old folks out crumpled in their wheelchairs from this towering building

The other day I was talking to a neighbor who said he has found a way to help the poor and improve our environment simultaneously. It’s no secret, he said, that we have a dire food shor...

When you were a boy in 1948 living on a block of bungalows in Chicago right after WWII you had a red wagon you pulled behind your mother

Other than death there’s no way to escape them unless you’re a hummingbird

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

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.

Used to be she’d tell him what to get at the grocery store and he always brought it back. Now she makes a list.

Elmer’s an old stag now shedding antlers snorting among the trees but sometimes Martha after her shower

Old Sam on his deathbed says he’d rewrite his life if he could. He’d do so many things differently… be nice to all his wives if he cou… but luckily they had died before h…

Before dawn Bill stoops under crimson leaves of the low-hanging Japanese Maple

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 was warm and toasty, curled up, napping in amniotic fluid, without a worry when suddenly

I flew out to see a high school friend. from many years ago. He was poor back then and I was better off.