Because the sun is shining, we ignore the forecast, ignore the gathering clouds we can't identify by name: cumulous? cumulonimbus? Nor d...

A squirrel monopolizes the feeder, eating as if the cylinder were filled solely for its nourishment although the seeds are labeled "Wil...

I mistake the small moth, wings folded, unmoving, for a bit of dried leaf stem in the basin; but when I reach to remove it, it opens its win...

the others are sleeping. through a slit in the curtain you watch the rain. past midnight, it peters off like an ellipsis, the silence betwee...

You stagger on the stepping stone, losing strength in autumn’s chill. At times you tumble over on your back, and struggle to right yourself ...

Grandpa knew the best places to gather bundles of dandelion leaves to feed his family. He bypassed easier pickings closer to home, trash-pol...

Watching an old movie from the 40’s in which every one of the actors--except for maybe the kid--has passed on, a question comes to mind: Wha...

Dwayne moved home to help his aging parents. We’d have Cokes on their porch. After a beach week they brought us salt-water taffy. Dwayne’s s...

Almost the first thing I do in the morning is take a bunch of pills, usually with my coffee, but sometimes with the sordid remains of a glas...

Today I saw a single silky thread from aspen to eaves. I traced it and watched a spider, backlit by the sun, weaving precise gossamer tendri...

Sugar maples are the first to turn, mottled orange and scarlet with the green, trying on the season. I need a sweater now for morning walks....

The one that’s 10 years old — its leather soiled and supple, lining grayed by a thousand ins and outs of billfolds, keys, candy. The purse f...

Do we only live when the big promotion is given? Do we only live when the awful day comes, and the ambulance arrives, and everyone’s gathere...

Cascading water pours over rocks vested in moss, whispering to me like a mother soothing her child. At a distance, a visitor crunches throug...

Forgive me when I praise my wealth of aspects not yet praised: aches in back, ankles, knees of which I complain to have something to say whe...

The call we fear we're going to get comes while we’re eating popcorn and watching television in the evening. It’s our oldest son who jus...

I’m beginning to shuffle, my older sister says in our weekly long distance phone call. Remember how Mom always yelled ‘pick up your feet’ as...

Small songbirds crowd the feeders: finches, a pair of Carolina wrens, a solitary junco. Three squirrels join them at the old stump, strewn w...

On his birthday my friend, Michael, will have an MRI. His neurologist wants to affirm or rule out suspected Parkinson’s. For now, his diagno...

Mom and Dad loved lupine, but couldn’t control it. Year after year, they’d plant the finest seeds in the finest soil but it bloomed where it...