Diablo Circus

 At the coffee shop after work, I was finishing a bowl of soup in the late day sun, when an old friend walked in. I waved and she sat down. We were catching up on things when a white-haired fellow sat down at the next table (more…)

Innocent Liability

What do we have in a sea of moonlight? (more…)

Everyday Violence

“The rush and the pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of innate violence. (more…)

from “Living in the HUD: The Amazing and Perilous

    Lives of People in Public Housing”  by Tom deMers

Strange Encounter

Late Monday morning I let myself into Dixie’s apartment. (more…)

In a Confined Space                            (for Eric)

Midnight thunder roars,

rain rattles hard, sleepers

squeeze deeper in their beds, (more…)

Coming Home

Sometime between cutting up the lettuce and

getting it into the bowl the sound of traffic dissolves. (more…)

After Linda left the room, he lay there flat on his back staring at the ceiling, only his eyes were closed, just hearing the semi’s on the interstate through the open window, the curtains blowing lightly. The sound of distant tires was like water, some sort of river whining over concrete, rippling through half a mile of corn fields into his ear. All he could do was float on the bed, feeling the moments drip into each other and the delicious warm behind his eyes. (more…)