A row of lilacs covered with a summer snow. Ten white butterflies. Donal Mahoney

On the table by the window balanced on its spine this leaflet butterfly open and still as a

Grandma Gretchen’s in her rocker and she has something to say. She tells a visitor, a young man from the city, if he plans to write a book about life on a farm in the Fifties, he likely...

Jack’s a widower. His wife died years ago so every year he takes a plane and helps his mother decorate his childhood home for Christmas.

The older I get the more I realiz… the importance of getting things d… before your mother announces anoth… assignment to roust me from my ham… As you know I’ve never been much

After the poetry reading the lights go on and a lady under a big hat rises behind dark sunglasses and asks the poet why

You love your grandson, this blue bundle in your arms. There’s no doubt about that. He has peaches for cheeks and the sky’s in his eyes

Paul’s in his backyard on a Sunday afternoon barbecuing burgers. His wife and kids are hungry in the house.

Harvey has a special room in the basement that’s always lock… He keeps a safe there, some antiqu… and family memorabilia he fears midnight thieves might steal.

We have something in common, a fellow I talk to now and then. We’re about the same age and perhaps the only ones in the diner who think our past lives are interesting. So when the two o...

I told my guest it’s just a poem doesn’t mean a thing a salad tossed with colors bright