In St. Louis young blacks carry guns like cell phones and use them often to shoot each other, as we read in the daily paper

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

Years ago Rodney King, after his beating in LA, softly asked America, “People, can we all just get along? Can we stop

Melanie cried for hours the day a drunk driver ran over her dog a week after she had an abortion. She loved that dog so much she told her mother she knew

There are a lot of people like me neither rich nor poor, idling in the middle who have never wante… for anything in our lives. We were reared by parents

After services on Sunday the old Marlboro man puts his Bible under his arm and talks to his pastor through a hole in his neck.

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

This brilliant winter morning find… waves of snow on every lawn and red graffiti dripping from the walls of Temple Mizpah

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

Noon meal at the nursing home and everyone is there chowing down and talking. Before dessert is served there’s an announcement to be made

Far away and long ago stuff happened in Gramps’ life that he’d like to forget but he can’t, even though he can’t always remember what he had for breakfast, lunch or dinner. But anything...

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

They never held hands when they were a couple young and newly married as much in love as they were planning a wonderful life.

The weekday Mass at 6 a.m. brings old folks out from bungalows around the church. They move like caterpillars