Cold Water Raining between Them Annie has a nice washing machine now but she remembers the one her mother had with the wringer, the old-fashioned kind. Her mother took in washing and when the washing machine would break Annie would become half the wringer. Mother would hold the waist of wet pants and Annie would grip the cuffs and they’d […]
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Sarah makes sandwiches all day, piling meat and trimmings high on pillowy bread she spreads apart before her customers’ eyes. Hardworking men love her sandwiches and sometimes date her after work but none so far has mentioned marriage. This confuses Sarah who’s as open as her bread in satisfying men. That’s not too wise, says Ethel, a granny clone Sarah chats with after lunch-hour […]
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The Widow Next Door Every Saturday when the sun is out and it’s hotter than Hades Monica next door raises her garage door early in the morning and leaves it up long past noon as if Herm will walk out at any minute oily and greasy needing to clean up the way he used to every Saturday […]
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High Tea in Missouri They’re the oldest couple my wife and I know and we’re no pups either. Peter out for a walk leans on his cane often to admire my wife’s garden. The English roses remind him of home, he says, and one day he invites us over for tea at the civilized hour of 3. That day at 3 we enter an old world in […]
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Age Has Curtains An incident in youth never meant to happen recorded on a pad to be read another time is found decades later in a drawer of socks by the writer who is then on the precipice of age. His reading glasses help him understand who it was and why he did it. Not so funny now. Can’t apologize. He’s […]
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I Traded Ethel for Tiffany I know very little about computers but I use one for basic needs. Poems, stories, not much more. Like some nice women I’ve known, I’ve discovered computers have a mind of their own. They do what they want and expect me to understand. The problem is I never do. I babble in amazement. And like the […]
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Parents Night Emma used to do real good in school her mother tells her new teacher. It’s Parents Night at Ryland Elementary. Mostly mothers in attendance. What’s the problem, her mother asks. Fifth grade shouldn’t be hard for her. Emma’s never had a grade lower than a B, her mother says. Teacher says Emma doesn’t do her homework and talks a lot in class. Her mother can’t believe it. Says her […]
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Answering Machine My wife’s upset because I won’t answer the phone in the middle of the night even though the phone’s on my side of the bed. And I say that’s because after all these years we both know whenever the phone rings in the middle of the night, someone we know, maybe someone we love, has […]
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Freckles They Called Him Walter Branham, a retired teacher, and his wife Victoria went to Applebee’s, the chain restaurant, for lunch one day last week. First time they had gone there. Usually they go to an ethnic restaurant but Victoria wanted a salad. Walt as always was obliging. The restaurant host was a young man who as a […]
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The following is a collection of poems about Vietnam veterans and how their lives were forever changed by the horrific effects of the herbicidal warfare compound known as Agent Orange. A Life Without Guard Rails You think you got problems? You probably do but would you trade with Phillip, a Vietnam vet who still thinks Agent Orange lurks in every puddle […]
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