Day: May 20, 2023

A Red Wing Blackbird says, “conk-la-reel.” The news says, “Authorities say the group of seven young people beat a man, unprovoked, and stabbed him in the thigh while making anti-gay remarks.” You say, “Can we listen to something else?” heading into the garden. I say, “Sure.” You say I’m addicted to bad news since I…

“I’m gonna make it harder for you to die,” I said, grabbing garden tools from my truck bed and heading toward Eileen’s precious backyard, devastated by cold and floods. At eighty-eight, she reads minds as I do at sixty nine, probably sensing my boyish need to fix things for women who might vanish like my…

The call of the open road beckoned me backwards. After eighteen years of jumping from one relationship to another to avoid being alone, I buckled up for the next 2,500 miles with only my dog. Phantoms began awakening on the George Washington Bridge before secrets from earlier road trips stuck their thumbs out for a…