From my stool in the diner I watc… the old woman with elm tree arms command the big booth in back and roar for a menu, take a half hour to read it

Dad hit me only once, an uppercut to the solar plexus. It nearly lifted me off my feet. I was 17 then and already fairly tall, 6’1.” He was 48 and of medium height, 5’8,” a fireplug who...

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

Let’s not worry about it, Dearie, life gets better, life gets worse. We’re no different than the seasons of the year except we’re luckier than most having

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...

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

After World War II before television, before women had tattoos before men wore earrings, I was a child in a world

In that backyard three small trash cans had their place next to each other against the house.

Sam’s collected knives for 50 year… and has 200, maybe more, relics from the Civil War and before. Someone gave him his first knife when he was 30 as a gift but

Although we’ll never again be body to body or mind to mind, you and the place and the years are alive every night in the lette… I’ve stored in my room.

A good reason to get married, Tim told me before he died, is you need a driver to take you home from a colonoscopy. When cancer runs in the family

Old lady on a park bench hunkered down babushka and shawl snow and wind dancing everywhere

America had a choice November 8 between a devil they know and a devil they don’t. They chose

“Damn the vernal equinox! Full speed ahead!” is all that Cootie Murphy would ever say when he sat on the last stool at the end of the bar in The Stag & Doe Inn. He wouldn’t say it very ...

When bread is this good a morsel will suffice and when wine