I’m not saying my father hated the English, God forbid. If he were still alive, he’d hate to hear me say that. He’d correct me right away and say he didn’t hate the English. Truth be to...

Third day on her honeymoon Sharon asks Butch what it’s like for a man before he gets married. A bricklayer by trade, and a man of few words,

In a long marriage couples communicate in so many ways, often in silence. In recent years I rise very early and now leave post-it notes

When Molly and Tim got married they spent hours talking about everything they had to get done. And indeed they got a lot done. Now their kids have families

Someday you’ll be in bed dying like I am now and people you love and some you don’t will come by to say good-bye. They don’t know what to say because we’re all amat…

A poor man comes to the door after the storm last winter and asks if he can have something to eat if he shovels the walk. You say forget about the snow.

America has no caste system but America has castes. Like every other nation America has its rich and poor with everyone else sardined

Every evening, up in my rooom, I try to finish a poem but Chicago is hot and it’s better outside,

As we know, sometimes we can see the big picture by peeking through a keyhole. And in America today perhaps we can see better the state of innocence among young children by looking at a...

Where I live the press says teen use of heroin is epidemic. I thought an epidemic was a widespread disease afflicting thousands caught in

Jimmy and Billy, two young men in kindergarten, went home from school every day just before noon. They lived in a small town in Nebraska, in the middle of farm country. It was the 1950s...

Being out of work during the holidays is twice as bad and twice that’s happened now to Wally Ballew

I turn the porch light on at 4 a.m… to see if a miracle’s occurred and the paper’s landed somewhere in the snow blanketing our lawn. Instead I see a clump on the mat

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...

Ralph never planned on dying but when he did, he was swept away like a child’s kite blown astray. When he arrived at his destination… he heard angels singing, harps pla…