As the snow swirls around them, an old man in a wheelchair uses sign language to tell another old man standing at the bus stop, “Friend,

Every day the same play. The moment I rise, the first act begins, the same plot

Through the nursery glass Carlos Montero peeks at Consuela, his twelfth, in the arms of a nurs… Pink as a peony with brilliant black hair,

He doesn’t understand distressed j… Designer jeans with rents and tear… look like the rags he grew up in wearing other people’s discards. His mother got his jeans from a ch…

Many years ago Miriam’s parents took the kids for the weekend while she and Jack motored north to fish for trout in Montana at Miriam’s request.

First leaves of autumn. Slow parachutes this morning almost at the curb. Donal Mahoney

A row of lilacs covered with a summer snow. Ten white butterflies.\ Donal Mahoney

Underneath the feeder black juncos write hieroglyphics in the snow. Two cardinals arrive In a flash of red. They add

You think it’s easy, embalming bodies in these nightmares I have every night, bodies a vulture

The old man crossing the street has a bad limp we try to ignore. No one wants to look

You would think you would love a man who died for you and for everyone else, even those who will never know that he did.

Rose was a plain girl from a small town. She sang in the choir, never missed Bible study, left for the big city

Although it snowed a little Wedne… Jane’s hyacinths are blooming. And in the yard she saw this morni… 50 robins hopping in the sun. Some flew in couples into trees

Porch light bright all night keeps thieves away but not the moths that dance till dawn