After all these years my wife at the ironing board, perfect in panties. Donal Mahoney

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

I don’t see her often since she died but when I do it’s eerie over there at dawn or dusk.

I was very small the day they bombed Pearl Harbor but I remember my mother dashing around the kitchen saying nothing to me

November’s lovely in the rain, she… from her rocker near the window to no one in particular although the butler’s waiting for her groce… having walked her Pekingese.

Strapped to his bed in the nursing home, he tells every nurse who comes in and tightens his straps

Years ago my wife bought three wall clocks, atomic clocks they’re called. They require no batteries and you don’t plug them in.

July in the streets of Mexico City: One of the women one never would marry. One of the women one sees

The question isn’t why your little world is suddenly going to hell. The question is what can you do about

The stench came first, the young man remembers. It was as if someone had grabbed him by the ankles, turned him upside down

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

The tale’s a parable and it scares Bill more than any creepy clown hiding behind a tree

Fred prefers a mouse connected by a wire to his keyboard. Walt prefers a mouse that’s portable, able

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

It was her birthday. She was only five the dawn we went out to look at roses in Grandma’s garden