My brother’s bedroom was off limits, but that never stopped me from many things in my youth. Having eight siblings, 72 first cousins, and hundreds of class mates at St Mary’s of Redford grade, middle and high school—let alone thousands of parishioners in our little corner of the Detroit metropolis—there was always someone not to... Continue Reading →
This Dress It doesn't fit, Mom this dress, your death it's like a net, in satin wrapped around me, I'm trapped in this collar, I flounder I can't get it right it's not my size I wish I was naked and you had your breath. It's a straight jacket in black, I'm crazy like burlap,... Continue Reading →
for Kay McKay I wondered today how long it takes for someone to become an angel. Is it instantaneous? Now you're dead, now you're an angel? Is there a waiting period? A series of hoops and steps and paperwork to get desensitized from life and ready for death. Like an immigration process? A job interview? Is... Continue Reading →
Parenting, it is argued, is most difficult when your kids are young. When the likelihood of their choking on a cigarette butt found on the ground at the neighborhood spring festival is high. And there are those who believe that parenting is most difficult when your kids are older. And the likelihood of their smoking... Continue Reading →
It's Bridget's birthday today. So for her, I'll post something different. The opening of a short story: "Fold and Gish," a coming of age tale. Not about youth getting older, but older folks becoming alone. It's a look at the empty nest. I wrote this long before I had one, an empty nest that is,... Continue Reading →
Walt Whitman reportedly said that he wished his early work could be dropped into oblivion, well, ditto that, Walt. I believe the only reason that most of us high school kids had our work published in this sweet little journal, Mosaic, was that we were brave enough to submit. Okay, that's the only reason my work... Continue Reading →
I can't say that I remember the exact moment it happened, I mean it's not like your older brother just suddenly likes you after years of teasing and tricking. For some, sibling love develops very slowly. I do remember the night I noticed something had changed, and my hero, my older brother Pat, saw me as something... Continue Reading →
I grew up in Detroit in a big Catholic family in a big old house. I was the seventh child. We belonged to St.Mary's of Redford Parish. By the time I was in seventh grade, our school was integrated, or in the process thereof. The Parish and neighborhoods were changing. Blacks lived next to Whites.... Continue Reading →
Teach your children well. Let them know when to protest, when to pray. If sink or swim are the options, tell them to swim. Always. Teach your children well. Make mistakes, but own them. Make cookies. Lots of them. Make rules, and bend them carefully and only if necessary. Teach your children well. Trust them.... Continue Reading →
We stitch together what we can from our lives, avidly trying to make sense of it all. Yesterday's subtle sunset in the west, a simple display of gray swathes with a few thin golden lines, lovely and soft, essential but not memorable. Lo and behold, turn around and that same simple daily decsent has indeed... Continue Reading →
pocket poet 