And God made the firmament, and divided the waters under the firmament from the waters above the firmament: and it was so. —Genesis 1:7...

You bought a dozen roses for the thorns, wrapped your palm & fingers round their spikes, the rivulets of rouge— dittoing their corolla of...

Everyone gasped in church whenever his name was voiced aloud, snubbed him during handshakes, shunned him through their coffee. The kids...

When you told me the biggest human genocide took place in the “Belgian” Congo, I cursed my homeroom teacher, my biased curriculum, the...

On the day of your Bat Mitzvah, you twirled beneath the snow, your unpierced tongue extending like an ophidian from a cleft, trans- muted...

The webhost that I use is claiming a widget will not load. Nothing is where it should be because of this power-tripping gizmo. There’s...

You say our survival is dependent on the heeding of warning signs. A tickle in my throat precedes a cough, and the cellist can somehow...

Our long-awaited jaunt to gay Paree   has been postponed. I try to be upbeat as I spring the news: In a year it will still be there. It’s...

We discern the milky seeds of dying dandelions, afloat in mid-June breeze, and I tell you as I boy I saw them through my bedroom window,...

Grandad stopped getting fish & chips once they were no longer wrapped in newsprint, the headlines from the night before. It sucked up the...

I think I’ve had enough of our know-it-all acquaintance. He’d be another friend if he wasn’t such a dick. Just today, in the hallway for...

The cat of which I scrawl is but a menace. He doesn’t make an attempt at being cute. His purr is like a Dodge without a muffler. He will...

ran the deli by Central Park, ran her mouth more than the food, always had something to say between our bites of matzo balls, our swigs...

—a small flake of soot or other dirt Oxford English Dictionary To say my brand- new book of poems is just a magnet for the dust is an...

Maybe a shot of luck— the deflecting of fired lead. Or a golfer's placid putt into a cup; the baseball which is launched into the air,...

What is it about our conditioning that moves us to hate the weak and ugly? What stories were we told of beautiful riders and delicate...

I’ve learned my bitter lesson, to never ask a question on our city’s Facebook group. Does anyone know if there’s a Dairy Queen in town?...

You’ve squandered your very best, on that which fails to give you lauds & laurels: the one-liner which you muttered in the mausoleum...

Our daughter is dead. We plant seedlings by her grave in April, when Spring seduces with all its promise, moisten the ground with a jug...

…with hints of raspberry, chocolate, citrus and aromatic in its finish. Cut the bullshit, please. I taste nothing of the kind—and the...