poetry and prose by stephen chute

Monday, August 11, 2025

Sunday, August 10, 2025

Saturday, August 9, 2025

we're adults now, sadly so

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we'll get dressed and go despite not wanting to go. we'll stare at the invite and sigh. tonight's the night. it's what we do...

the blue eyed cat

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the cat, blue eyed, and grey, a silky goddess on the sill bathing in the sun, thinking nothing about anything, cares little about you and ...

one or two scoops?

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i see old Sleepy Joe, the ex pres, at Baskin and Robbins, not as a customer, but now he's working full time behind the counter. he's...

the safest place in the house

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the cupboards above the refrigerator are unreachable without a chair, or ladder. it's the safest place in the entire house, so that'...

you'll never find another love like mine

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she used to tell me, you'll see, just wait, you'll find out how much you're going to miss me when i'm gone. i can't reme...

we just don't get along

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some wars go on forever, they were going on before you were born, and will continue on long after you're gone. it's the nature of ma...

ghosts of stores past

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banded together by a thick rubber band i find a handful of old check registers in the creaky file cabinet in the basement. carefully, like f...

Friday, August 8, 2025

finding the VHS tapes

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i find a dozen or so VHS tapes in a bin tucked far away on a shelf in the basement. each marked with a year. 85, 86, 91 2000 and beyond. bea...

there is a God, after all

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i take the barrel of change to the bank and pour it slowly into the counting machine. it painfully grinds away and counts my money for me. n...

some friend you are

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he was angry at me because i didn't know that his dog died, and that he got a new job and a new wife, and was now the owner of a Dunkin ...

what about me?

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okay, okay i tell the large black fly hitting his head into the screen trying to get back outside. flapping his iridescent wings. give me on...

New Moscow

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New York city, i mean New Moscow is about to change. free stuff, but long lines. frozen rents, and surgeries on the tax payer dime for the m...

the enormous playground

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the hours we would spend with dirt and sticks, a fallen tree, the stream overflowing with a hard rain. the frogs and turtles, the storm drai...

Thursday, August 7, 2025

the early role model

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i think back and try to think if i had a rational wise adult in my life when growing up. a mother or father, an uncle, an aunt, a teacher in...

there was no need to be afraid

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we prepared for nuclear war by hiding under our wooden desks in the third grade. what we didn't know was that they were fireproof and wo...

our messy house

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this fascination with going to the moon, or mars, or elsewhere is baffling. colonizing the milky way, really? do we really want to bring wh...

suspicious eyes

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there's a slippery greenish blue chameleon crawling up the metal strip on the door. he's fast as he scurries along to where chameleo...

the vibrating bed

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we were tired from the long drive, still days ahead of us before reaching home when we spotted a roadside motel near the railroad tracks. it...

the welfare state

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these crazy birds on the fence, all sizes and colors, waiting for me to fill the bird feeder. the squirrels too, rubbing their paws togethe...

just another day

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there's a communal sigh and shrug as the next mass shooting comes on the news. you barely watch as you shake your head. how many this ti...

the serious morning talk

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we have a serious talk. it's morning before work. she's wrapped in a white robe, hair wet from the shower. i'm ready to head out...

Wednesday, August 6, 2025

i don't want to go home

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i take the broom out and begin to sweep up the broken glass. the bottle slipped so easily off the tray as i carried it to the table. two lon...

another quarter for another ten minutes

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with a pocket full of change i'd go up to the Rexall store and sit inside the phone booth, closing the bi-fold doors, then call her, Emi...

the back of the metro section

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when you read about the death of someone in the paper, a celebrity, or singer, an actor of some sort, or maybe a fallen or rising star, or ...

a work of art

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it's a work of art this peanut butter sandwich, the strawberry jam lathered over the slice of white bread. the brown sweet crunch of nut...

the short end of the stick

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the first baby was adored, so was the second and the third, they enjoyed all the fresh love and care, but by the fourth my mother had had en...

the discount burial

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there's no stone, no marker, no bench to come sit and remember her by. there's no indication as to where she's buried. it's ...

the street artist's sketch

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we stop to let the street artist sketch us, together, sitting down. she's fast, the rendering of us comes quickly to her on the pad. her...

green sneakers

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all summer we pushed our mower up the street cutting lawns. our sneakers turned green from the cut wet grass, our skin bronze, our hair blon...

there's a dog barking in the distance

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i slip into my soft comfy grey loafers with the suede finish. it's that kind of day already. i sashay over to the window with my cup of ...

online dating

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do you zoom, she asks me, skype, or do face time? do you have WhatsApp? how about a Facebook page? no, no and no. but i can meet you tomorr...

Tuesday, August 5, 2025

the crossword puzzle, four across

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baffled by four across, a word that starts with L and ends with E. a feeling of great emotion, the clue reads. i scratch my head, tap my fin...

apologies to Paul Newman

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finally. i find a few free hours to get rid of all the old salad dressings in the refrigerator. i count ten. some i use a spackling knife to...

a broom stick cut in threes

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they were heavy wooden windows, i used a broom handle cut into threes to prop them up. they had four over four sashes with ancient glass, th...

how to be a writer

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start with dirt under your nails, then read, read, read, and read some more until the bindings break. accumulate ripples of scars, pink like...

Wrong Number

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The phone rings at three a.m. I let it go five, six, seven times then pick it up on eight. It's the wrong number, again. Someone wants S...

there's nothing to fear here

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the lights are soft in the waiting room, there's a picture on the wall of a family smiling, their teeth straight and white, there's ...

the kitchen phone circa 1968

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no one calls my landline, except for telemarketers. my mother used to, mostly on Sunday to ask if i'm still coming over, but she's ...

Jane didn't come back

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a fun group of neighbors decide to go jump out of a plane over Orange County. they've been practicing for almost fifteen minutes at the ...

roll away the rock

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i roll the big rock in the yard away from the fence, something i imagine from the paleolithic age, the soft black soil where it sat is full ...

the anatomical weather report

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my body gives me the weather report. there's no need for Bill on channel four, or Marsha on nine, or even the cutie pie Sarah on five. m...

there was a cake too

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it was blistering hot day, a wedding in a field with a white tent and an enormous pig roasting over an open fire, on a skew. slowly it turne...

Monday, August 4, 2025

a paragraph in a dress

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i admire how everything you need to say goes unsaid and yet i hear it loud and clear, the quiet as a mouse attitude works for you. the eyes,...

filling the void with grey

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so much is vague, a fog clearing and then filling the void with grey again. our hands swimming forward searching for light. so much is unkno...

the swinging of the legs

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i notice lately that when i'm sitting in a chair with my feet not reaching the floor that i swing my legs back and forth. it sort of fee...

in his car eating icecream

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i see kale in his grocery cart, as he goes through the list his wife made for him. lettuce, three kinds, apples and oranges, pears and grape...

the apology bouquet

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i can't decide on which bouquet of flowers to buy, to set things right. the apology flowers. what merits the occasion. what flower will ...

the old men sigh when she walks by

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she's 69, but can't give up her ripped jeans, her flat tanned belly revealed with the blouse up high. the blonde hair and skinny thi...

slip sliding away

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we pretend that so much matters. that what we say and do will continue on after the grave. our legacy will survive, and yet, so far a hund...

they've killed aunt jemima

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they've killed aunt Jemima. the mighty sword of woke has put Uncle Ben in back of the bus again, they've put the Indians and Redskin...

there is no straight line

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we yield to the sign, we go around, we slow down, we take another route, the man with the flare waves us by. the yellow lights blink. the d...

Sunday, August 3, 2025

good luck out there, young man

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are you insured, the boy asks me, standing at the door in his first suit, brochures in hand. hair parted like the Fuller Brush man used to d...

less sentimental now

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less sentimental than i use to be, though one would think it would be the other way around. but i'm younger now, less inclined to save m...

help wanted

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when i see a help wanted sign in a store, or business, or at a construction site, i almost go in, like i used to do with peach fuzz on my ch...

it hurt, still does

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as i stand here at the stove, staring into the black pot of clear boiling water, as if in a trance, i remember things i haven't thought ...

don't leave me out here, please

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before the Sunday hike, i load up my backpack with bug spray, bear repellant, snake repellant two cell phones, fully charged, a gallon of wa...

on the short list for a Norwegian blonde

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as i dislike people more and more, finding faults in them that seem irreparable, i'm all in on the next phase of civilization. robots. a...

the little fish in my ears

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my loss of hearing, is mostly to my benefit. not everything said is meant to be heard. i catch words in small numbers, like dipping a net in...

they dying of the light windows 8

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i find the old 14 inch laptop collecting dust on the back shelf of the closet. windows 8. i scrape the jelly jam and peanut butter off the k...

if i were to invent a religion

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if i were to invent a religion there would be no more preachers with leer jets and mansions, no toll free number to fill their coffers, no g...

Saturday, August 2, 2025

sticking the landing in bed

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i used to do a back flip off the diving board at the public pool when i was a boney kid, waiting for the girl i had my eye on to see me befo...

putting the house up for sale

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my new neighbor is a communist slash socialist ala the squad in congress and the democratic nominee in NYC for mayor. he's wearing an ol...

the all important third date preparation

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i slip the frozen Swanson tv dinner into the oven, turkey and mashed potatoes, gravy and peas, apple sauce then turn the knob to 350 and wai...

heavy breathing on the phone

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i got ninety-two phone calls yesterday, eighty-nine of them were potential spam that were actually spam. funeral insurance, social security,...

the day the music died

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when Elvis died, i thought that might be a good excuse to call up Kathy to see if we could reconcile, maybe weave in a little sympathetic sm...

the dog adoption process

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i take a look at dog prices. a thousand bucks, two thousand, twenty thousand clams for a Dacshund in New Jersey we used to pick up pups at t...

wake me when it's over

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it's the first cup of coffee, the first opening of the door, the windows. letting the dog out. two eggs in the pan, two slices of toast ...

Friday, August 1, 2025

not all of them had red hair

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you could almost point at the children you grew up with and knew where they were headed. not all of them had red hair. there was something w...

the hole in the screen door

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the screen door was never fixed. i can still hear that violent slam. for eleven years, the dog's nose and paws, struck shoes and boots p...

killing us softly

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i can still taste the strange bitter after taste of a cold Tab soda in a bottle. the drink that was going to save the world, and keep fat of...

it's different without her around

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i step over the pair of pants i've left on the floor, ignore the cups and saucers, three days old. i move the books off the couch and a ...

three saved messages

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the instructive voice on the phone tells me i have three old messages waiting, before they're banished into the ether. one from an insur...

from the same mother

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there's sober Mark, and drunk Mark, two people in the same body, sharing the same mouth and eyes, teeth, heart and soul. each fighting f...

three eggs cracked

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three eggs cracked into the cup stirred and she's in her element. the pan growing hot, with sweet cream butter gurgling, her ambitious h...

Thursday, July 31, 2025

invasion of the body snatchers

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i call up my old friend Joe to see if he wants to go to the park to throw the old pigskin around. football season is about to begin. he'...

i still have her snow shovel

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there's mint growing on the side of the stoop. Annie planted it back in 1998, before she moved and got married. i think of her in the sp...

i've never recycled, so shoot me

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i probably drink too much coffee, eat too much fatty food and pastry, drink too much gin and smoke too many cigarettes and have flings with ...

how dare you wave your hand like that and own a dog

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how dare you own a dog, do you know who else had a dog, Hitler had a dog, so did Mussolini, and Pol Pot. Chairman Mao used to eat dogs for b...

a heartfelt apology

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i'm sorry, i truly am, my hand is on my heart with regret, i sincerely apologize if i haven't offended you yet. but the day is you...

lunch in the dying light

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it was a ridiculous lunch. vanilla wafers, popcorn, cut up peaches and apples, lemonade and crackers with Philadelphia cream cheese. there w...

despite the score

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we'll do the best we can, we'll make the most of it, she tells me. sure we're poor now, but give it time, we'll be fine. you...

phased out of the family

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i see my wife at the store, she's with another man, my daughter is there, my son too. my dog is in his car. i watch them as they go down...

genie in a bottle

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i rub the bottle that i find lying on the beach. maybe, there's a genie inside, agreeing to give me a few wishes. so i rub it hard, but ...

three feet of snow

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it was a blinding snow as we trudged up the highest hill in town, deep snow, icing the streets, making the power lines sag, but we didn'...

Wednesday, July 30, 2025

one home to go home to

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the distance between rooms, between beds, between chairs at the small table in the dining room, the sofa, the picnic table in the yard wasn...

baby formula on the stove

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there was always a pot of baby formula on the stove while we ate at the small Formica table with our tuna sandwiches and potato chips, drink...

three quarters then home

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three quarters took you a long way back then, the ten cent call, the nickel ice-cream, a dime for a bus ride across town. but still enough t...

the community college writer's workshop on Tuesday night

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Lisa, in her tin foil hat, was working on a script for Star Trek, Joe was deep into his fictionalized auto-biography of Thomas Jefferson and...

the all-saints bracelet

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before we fooled around, she took off her all-saints bracelet and set it on the nightstand. she left it there. i called and told her that i ...

no green thumb

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when i look at the back yard, i see the overgrown weeds, the indefinable bushes, plants, baby trees. vines and thickets. i see no hope in t...

Ernie in his compression socks

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i visit the old man in his compression socks. his black beret tilted on his head, his aviator sunglasses snug around his ears. the televisio...

this too shall pass

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you have to quit, give up, surrender in order to have peace at times throw up the white flag of discontent and accept people for who they ar...

the summer home run

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you knew the second the ball hit the bat that it was a good swing, a solid strike wood against ball and that over the fence it would go in a...

Tuesday, July 29, 2025

the summer lights

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it was so easy to cup fireflies in our hands as children on the summer lawn. racing in our bare feet. the fading light, fading faster as our...

2 comments:

the critic you have to sleep with

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i need a new title for this poem, help me, i ask her, as she reads it for the fourth time, her glasses on the tip of her nose. it's not ...

forget Ozempic, here's how you do it

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i blame it on emotional eating, actually not eating in how i got back to the weight i weighed in high school. after the heart breaking break...

drugs, sex and crime

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i can see her now, Mrs. Barclay in her chair, afloat in a yellow flowered dress. her spoon lightly tapping the China cup, dropping more suga...

cry me a river

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there was money left over, not a large amount, not life changing, but enough to buy a new car, a new boat, some cosmetic surgery and enhance...

cold clear water

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is there anything better than cold water, clear cold water from a mountain stream, when the throat is parched, the mind dazed, when thirst h...

i know it's summer and yet

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i stick a leg out the door and it begins to drizzle in sweat. the sun has apparently moved closer to the earth or vice versa. it feels hot, ...

the weight we carry

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with each step i removed something from my body, something that weighed me down. a book of poems, my phone, my hat and gloves, my coat, my v...

the black negligee

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pulling a chair up, i find things i've forgotten about on the top shelf of the deep closet. do these things remember me? the baseball gl...

the waitress with pink nails

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i'll have two eggs over easy, hash browns, bacon, wheat toast and orange juice, i tell the waitress. so you want the number one, she say...

the passing of ships

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you wonder from this beach chair, how it is possible in the far distance that the ship can ever get anywhere at such a slow pace. crawling a...

i can't think of the word

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it's a slow change, the forgetting of words, mispronouncing them, leaving things behind, appointments made and not kept. the water left ...

Monday, July 28, 2025

the unexpected visitor

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there's a frog at the front door, a toad perhaps, i'm unsure, but i call him Bud, he looks like a Bud, serious and quiet, sitting th...

what i'll never know

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no longer in full throttle, running towards the arms of waves offered by the green sea that roars romantically, i gently step into what'...

from the ground up

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i believe our argument continues after we leave the room, the fumes of disagreement lingering. we get nowhere. and yet, tomorrow will be the...

the front row seat of my own life

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peace is here, but not to stay i'm afraid to say. it's a temporary fix on curtains rising, and curtains falling, of actors appearing...

what is it, i wonder

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what is it, i wonder, that ticking clock, these wet streets under the laundry of clouds, what is it that makes us walk towards or away from ...

the maddening crowd

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i see a line growing outside the red door of the white walled building, it's a crowd of anxious souls, so i get in line. i have to find ...

her lavender soap

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it's important to smell good, in fact more important than being good. you can fool the world with the right perfume or lotion, and a hot...

what makes a good neighbor

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good floors, good walls, good ceilings make good neighbors in the tall apartment building. keeping the music down and not cooking goat and c...

preparing for winter

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it's a cold night. the first snow has fallen. these thin summer sheets won't do, so i get the enormous thick blanket from the top sh...

all that unhappy ice cream

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she seems lost and permanently unhappy, so i take her out for ice cream. but still no smile, no laughter. i tell her she looks wonderful sin...

Sunday, July 27, 2025

the best advice i can give

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i won't bother you. no worries dear. no calls will come, no messages, no inquiries as to your health or work. your so often tragic relat...

the diary of a fly

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does the fly keep time, have a map, a diary of where he's been, where's he landed? or is it all kept in his little blue head? i'...

his heart in snow

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the dog you knew, yes, that one, the one in the picture in your wallet, your first son, is now in snow. blue eyed, blurred. the fetch was su...

how about we slow cook us

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it's all about slow cooking, about taking our time and not rushing things, and i'm not talking about just food, ribs or chicken, pot...

the end of the world hot dog

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i guess i could, i think, while staring at the greasy brownish hot dogs spinning sadly on the grill at 7-11, i guess i could eat one, if it...

the Yellow cab down Broadway

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as we speed down Broadway, the driver yammering on his phone in a strange language, while eating a kabob, his turban tilted and grey, we str...

i thought i knew you

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i used to know you. or at least i thought i did. i believed in you, that you were smart and sweet, kind. funny and bright. but how things ha...

red ballerinas

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i admire her line of flowers, red ballerinas aligned before the bushes. dancing in sunlight with slender green arms, welcoming each visitor ...

the sprained ankle

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as i drive her to the hospital with her twisted ankle, she's grateful. thank you, she says, thank you. you are so kind and caring. we sh...

the Sunday Edition

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it's a hard rain falling as i leave the grocery store. pelting the black hot street, so i put my 8 dollar Sunday edition of the newspape...

the soggy sandwich

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there was the kid in school with cut carrots in his lunch box. sometimes cucumbers too in a plastic bag, shaved of skin, cut into hexagons....

with blood dripping

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a spot of blood on the chin, clotted by the white tear of a tissue, is just the beginning of the day. no fear though. a small cut is child...

Saturday, July 26, 2025

my life without you begins now

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my life without you begins now, she tells me in a long white letter left on my pillow. we are done. finished. what was will never be again. ...

taking the A-9 Benning Road

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the second, i saw the man fall down in the street, being chased in the rain, clubbed for a watch or wallet i suppose, it was then that i k...

a minor domestic altercation

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the morning after, there was blood on the rug, broken glass, a hole the size of a man's fist in the wall. the phone cord was cut, the do...

old men talking about women

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we start talking about women one morning at our coffee get together in the breeze way of the strip mall. Joe blurts out, when a young woman ...

it's not dark yet

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everyone is scaling down their lives, downsizing, selling their lifelong homes. the pets gone, the children grown. well, not everyone, but n...

what is that, a triple A?

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there are at least fifty or more batteries in my battery bag that i keep under the sink. every size, every type, every strange shape. and ye...

the red Speedo in July

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at ninety-five my father was still lathering his leathery face with creams. lotions, chock full of collagen and vitamins. he'd lie out i...

the bumpy ride

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forget perfection, forget the idea of life being fair, of things always going your way. forget the fairy tale nonsense of your childhood, th...

the hospital visit

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i visit my friend Jimmy in the hospital. his room is full of flowers and gift baskets stuffed with fruit and candy, the flies and bees are e...

Friday, July 25, 2025

will work for food

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there is nothing above, or below us that we won't do when the stomach growls the mouth goes dry when we feel the bones beneath our cloth...

the carry on

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when i escape, i travel light, i'm all about the carry on, the small bag, the short suitcase with wheels, i can stuff my life easily int...

she tied me to the bedposts

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eventually, i'll untie this knot, this wretched tangle of rope that's holding me to the bed posts. arms above me, legs spread apart...

rating gas station bathrooms

some days are like this

mid morning lunch

perusing the galaxies

pretty much how it is

the condo fees

a horror movie

Midge and Harry

reminiscing about those school days

grateful for the little hands that made it

the bleeding hearts of print

every breath you take

the morning swim