I just discovered a Twitter hashtag. I don’t know how long #FirstLineFriday has been around, but I think I’ve been missing out. In keeping with my new resolution goal plan to write here on a more regular basis, I’ve decided to add a category to the list of categories I’ve up until now not been […]
The Grenfell Fire, Friends, and Food
The fire started in the kitchen of flat 16 on the fourth floor of Grenfell Tower, a 24-story block in west London. Ethiopian-born Behailu Kebede had lived there for almost 25 years. Just before 1 a.m. on June 14, 2017, his smoke alarm shrieked, and he discovered smoke coming from behind his refrigerator-freezer. He called the […]
Commit Poetry: The Road Not Taken By Robert Frost
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps […]
Committing Prufrock: Chasing Rabbits
Here I am working on only my third barista badge. I have a ways to go, but I can’t look too far ahead. If I do, I’ll panic and start muttering in the streets about having to recite all “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” at once. This is a long poem, so I […]
31 Days of Moving Reflections – Day 21 #SouthFloridaBound
Friday, October 21 Today we’re facing down danger in Florida– not alligators nor sharks nor fireants nor mosquitoes nor Nile crocodiles nor Burmese pythons. Today we’re going to get our kicks not on Route 66 but on what many deem to be the most deadly or at least second deadly stretch of highway in the country, Interstate 95 heading […]
31 Days of Moving Reflections – Day 15 #SouthFloridaBound
Saturday October 15 Red flags everywhere. Not a green one to be found. Not since I’ve been here. D remembers being caught in a rip current once. (They move faster than an Olympic swimmer, they say.) He thought he might drown, but he remembered the rules. Call for help. Stay calm. Don’t fight against […]
31 Days of Moving Reflections – Day 8 #SouthFloridaBound
Saturday, October 8 We said goodbye this morning Hugged the grands Waved our waves Packed the car Caged the cat. The daughter who was done with her goodbyes came back. Later said God knew she needed time alone–with us, with the house she grew up in. There were tears and more hugs and […]
31 Days of Moving Reflections – Day 1 #SouthFloridaBound
Saturday, October 1 It’s been raining for three days. Muddy waves churn from the newly dug drain field in the side yard. I’m wearing a Tshirt when I meet D at the airport. I take along a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt and a jacket. He changes in Bob Evans’ restroom. His blood has […]
When You Entertain Unaware
“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers,” wrote the author of Hebrews, “for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.” “Did we talk about that [the following event] then?” I asked Sissy the other day. “I don’t remember,” she responded. Maybe our brains were still reeling from the bourbon. I asked […]
When You Need to Seam Home
The men are laying new vinyl today. “Do you want the seam here… or there?” asks the one in charge. And I’m thinking, I don’t care. I won’t be living with it. This will no longer my home. I’m losing my sense of home. I’m already separating from it like a dying person begins to […]
