Black flag on the lawn falls in pieces from the sky. Starlings in command. Donal Mahoney

It boils down to this. There are two kinds of people in Upper Slobovia at the moment, those who prefer hard-boiled eggs chopped in their potato salad

A group of older men gather once a week to talk about life after a heart attack. Old Len chews tobacco still and tells jokes in a voice so low

Autumn and the leaves, crisp in the swirling air, are pheasant wings once more Donal Mahoney

He’s a vet from Vietnam who won’t say much about what happened over there except to say his problem began with Agent Orange,

Deep into a warm winter the Japanese red maple keeps her crown of brilliant leaves as if to prove to the evergreens especially that big blue spruce

Gramps knows a minister who collects classic Corvettes. He rents another garage whenever he buys another Corvette. He says his estate will sell the c…

Fuzzy wasn’t my cat although I fed him every morning at four o’clock for 10 years. He was my wife’s cat, loved to sit on her lap, be petted, jump down and rub his head against her feet....

Married 60 years Fred and Daisy still are very different people. All day long they hide their differences to make

Jimmy was visiting his father when Mr. Crenshaw called to say Mrs. Bittles had died the night before of a sudden heart attack.

He looks for you until you find him while you wonder if he’s there Donal Mahoney

The Sixties almost killed Will, a wasted man who sobered up long enough to vote for JFK. And he’d have voted for RFK if he hadn’t been killed as well.

Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow in February and says six more weeks of winter. That same day the first moth of spring lands on my storm door

I was out of control, spinning on the whirligig of youth, giddy to be caught in what Kerouac called “the whole mad swirl