A barren woman takes one in her brown hand, caresses its belly; as its hood flares, kisses the yellow spot on its head where the Buddha left his blessing. Advertisements Continue reading →

In church as a child, where the Pledged pews force spines into unpleasant uprightness, (by sermon’s end I’d be drooping carpetward,) he’d sing: round little man, lumpy as a dog’s bed, crooning coffeehouse acoustic, eyes closed or unfocused off to the left somewhere, gone, then he’d return, stooping a bit under applause, plump cheeks tucked … Continue reading →

I go to this bookshop, pick up a book called The Elm Tree by Peter O’Neill and it’s strange, the bookshop lady asks as I buy it if I’m a friend of his. I’m not – it just looked good but jesus, poor Peter. and she just assumed, too; as if anyone buying his book … Continue reading →

We could not separate his death from the multi-colored carpet. His bones , a disintegration of the sound any creature makes when it seeks finality. His single orb opened and closed like an SOS sent from a sinking ship; the only indication of his fight for a fleeting breath. If only he had headed for … Continue reading →

I. Thirty years ago, my brother went to Egypt. Contact was difficult, but we managed it. Some Sunday afternoons we tried to call him. My little-girl fingers loved to dial the phone, spinning the wheel to each number in the long sequence and then starting all over again when we got cut off. Most of … Continue reading →

It’s not the knife, the blood, or the wound, but the thin red slit settling into scar. It’s not the blemish, the mark, or the finality, but the reminder two bodies connected. It wasn’t the flesh, the raw, or the deep reach, but the dead stillness, her hand, my bare chest. Continue reading →

By now, it’s become a ritual that we perform together—the subway beggar and myself. He sits there huddled on his fragile black milk crate, sad-eyed, beaten down, his tattered upturned cap held in front of him between his knees, loaded up with nickels, dimes, and quarters, sometimes even a dollar bill or two, into which … Continue reading →