Robin on the lawn. Three hops and stops to listen. Somewhere must be spring. Donal Mahoney

It isn’t a flophouse where Fred lives now but he calls it that a month after moving in and seeing his fellow

Our house has a garret I never went up to until I retire… Now I’m up there almost every day unless I have to stay in bed until another spell passes.

Leaves on a Japanese Maple dance auburn in the wind remind me of that mother crossing Michigan Avenue before the light changes

I bring a milkshake every other we… to an old man in a nursing home, a refugee from Germany who paid me 50 cents to cut his grass when I w… a kid in Chicago after WWII.

I get an email every day from a man I don’t know and doesn’t know me. Many people receive blind copies of his emails.

After 30 years together, Carol tells me late one evening in the manner of a quiet wife that I have yet to write a poem about her, something she

We have one of those medical plans… my wife and I. The co-pays let us see a doctor, have a procedure, pay for medications. Can’t remembe… ever paying full price. Especially

Old Sam in Room 322 at the nursing home asked the nurse to push his bed near the window because in October he likes to watch the l…

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

It will be a while before Fred’s hometown has its annual food drive, he told me. That’s an important event because it helps stock the pantry at the small charity where he volunteers. Ri...

You were gone when I got home at midnight from a double shift. Now you’re back,

Both of them had been to Korea. Both of them had made it back. One found a job

A neighbor lady I hadn’t seen in a year I heard was bedridden. Her former husband dropped by, asked if I’d to take in her trash… when I brought in my own.

I like to watch master chefs on television do their thing. My favorite is Jacques Pépin when he has to chop an onion. No one chops an onion faster.