If I could have lobbied the gods for you to stay,I would have sunk to my knees.Asked them to choose any price.Diamonds and gold and dignity forjust one change: all the times I was too tired,too impatient,turn them to kindness. And if their glacial eyes did not seem too shocked, I would add,let me remember to…
Month: February 2024
Yentl, Tragedy, and the Unanswerable Question
“Yentl” is my favorite short story. Sort of. Let me explain. There’s a joke that the question a reader/writer hates most is also the most frequently asked: “what’s your favorite book.” Or “what’s your favorite short story?” It’s such a personal question. The answer has everything to do with who I am deep down; who…
The Dining Table
Day comes and he brandishes a small pocket-knife, silver and whetted; he sticks it in my back and the blade twists in my body, drawing not only blood but a soundless cry as well. It’s hard to practice indifference and even harder to let a wingless bird go, so I cut myself open and this…
Ties that Bind
I’m going to tell you the story Da told me, and he says he got it from his own Da, Bill Verling. I don’t remember him – he died when I was about two – but Da swears up and down that Granda always spoke about what he saw that night in awe. Granda wasn’t…
“leukemia,” “die doktor,” “process & finale”
leukemia blood ate from his body wrapped in radiation. his tongue embrace the nectar that his mouth spills out. a hummingbird hovers above his lips—still nothing new. still the body caves onto itself. still there are little whispers to find the sick dying, & sick are dying. worms detect his eyes; sparrows discover the worms….