She lives by a lake. After a heavy snow she looks out the window and sees black swans in a long, straight line

It is said brave folks who understand this new world understand demons. Donal Mahoney

Someone has to cut the grass Molly tells Bill dozing off in his recliner too weary to cut it. For years a vet from Vietnam

In your mind you hear words snarling all day long but no poem arrives. The words are locked

I have a friend, old and retired, who keeps busy helping the poor. Let’s call him Ted because he wants to remain anonymous. Some of his ideas, he says, wouldn’t make many of his neighbo...

Thirty years later, Dad came back and we met for Ham and Yams at To… Pouring his tea, he told me he had to restore power once at a newspaper warehouse

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

Summer evenings after the news at 6 p.m. the Widow Murphy comes out of her tiny bungalow and sits on her front porch swing

Herb’s a middle-age son with a big family and lots of pressure. Too busy to care for Mom and Pop so he drives to Shady Lane to see if he thinks they might like the p…

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.

After the Inauguration, perhaps he will take his family on vacatio… Hawaii’s an oasis during the winte… But in time he’ll watch for someth… that will challenge his skill set.

Two old men meet for coffee once a week at a diner while their wives play cribbage. Jim says he has a problem. His wife leaves the water running

When a man’s young, this work is hard but it pays well and he can feed the wife and kids.

Through the window I see the sun fire up for the last time today. There are jays in the trees near the meadow,