No red kettles and bells this December outside the stores at the mall in our suburbs this year. They irritate shoppers,

I never remember year to year but then some morning in March I’ll walk out in the yard

Newlyweds cuddle on a bench in their garden. A hummingbird pauses then enters a lily. They make love in public.

I saw Al once a month for 30 years, maybe more, doing business together. He retired to hunt bear in Alaska, hook Tarpon

So many of us feed the birds even though we know birds can make it on their own in any weather,

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

Deep in the city where the poor wait for the Second Coming suicide is uncommon. No one leaps off skyscrapers

Paul’s not a veteran of Vietnam but he goes there in his dreams to watch his brother Tim walk in hazy streams sprayed with Agent Orange before he

Sometimes you sit for days sucking yourself in praying the right words will fall in your ear toboggan over the whorls

Elmer’s an old stag now shedding antlers snorting among the trees but sometimes Martha after her shower

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

Solid middle class he is always has been always will be until tomorrow on the highway

Heaven’s Sake or maybe Hell No. Even if we weigh a ton our body’s not a problem

Three times a day a train roars through a field a farm away booming like an Angus bull looking for companionship.

A tragedy happened to Willie and Millie after years of marriage… All their kids were doing well and had nice families of their own but tragedy struck one dawn before