An old friend lost an old friend the other day. Jim said they were both getting up in years and he just happened to outlast Herman. Jim was black and Herman was white but that had never...

Alvin didn’t want to be anybody else. He didn’t want to be himself either. Money wasn’t a problem.

There are poems everywhere but you have to find them, a teacher told my class long ago. I was a kid sitting at a desk, cowlicks sprouting from my scalp,

In your mind you hear words snarling all day long but no poem arrives. The words are locked

The scruffy old man and his white poodle on a long red leash were neighborhood icons years ago down at the corner

Bill’s a conservative upset that Meals on Wheels and Medicaid face possible cuts in America’s budget. He yells to colleagues

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

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

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

Being poor on our patch of land was better than being poor all the years I’ve lived in the ci… We had a couple of cows, a rooster and seven hens.

Jack Bogan died last week, the la… of the Whippets, a garage band big in a small way back in the Sixties… The Whippets had a following in Chicago and its suburbs.

Oliver Jones, now gray and grizzl… cut the Miller’s lawn for years.… a victim of Agent Orange, Oliver’… almost as old as the Millers, his… Recently he’s left ridges and tuft…

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

It will be a while before Fred’s hometown has its annual food drive, he told me. That’s an important event because it helps stock the pantry at the small charity where he volunteers. Ri...