“Looks like I did it again, Peanut.”

Hair plastered to her face, Meg sat cross-legged in Nathan’s closet. She rested her forehead in her hands. Peanut, never one to miss an opportunity, leapt off a stack of old records and jumped in her lap. The terrier licked her salty face. What had started as a simple project to find a sentimental gift for Sean from Nate’s things had mushroomed into a time cap...

When I was a girl

Pretty was wash and a blowout

Metal hot comb

Holding down your ear

As Miss Paulette caught those edges

Now

A good podcast and a rat tail comb

Take out my braids day

A pile of plastic hair

And my fingers loving my scalp

My natural crown gray and proud for a minute

Wash day

Pre poo shampoo deep conditioner leave-in treatment spray hair oil curl mousse natural

Orange rings of fl...

“What am I looking at?” Daniel asked.

“You tell me,” Ben countered.

Adjusting the loupe in his eye, Daniel examined the rough gemstone in his fingers. He sighed. Ben was the baby of the family and even if she wouldn’t admit it Ben was Mom’s favorite. Daniel had to work in Uncle Thad’s jewelry shop afterschool and summers. Peter worked two jobs and went to college at night. But not Ben.

Ben w...

Exhausted white petals, the altar flowers were drooping. Mrs. Klausman, church pianist, was going all “Carnival of Souls” on the the organ. Mr. Benson, the father of the bride, was psyching himself up for the best worst speech of his life. Checking their watches, the guests in the pews waited in confusion. Holding his head, the Rev. John Paul Cordero mumbled to himself.

“Is it really that big a ...

Bang! Something, something deadly, bashed against the dean’s office door. The hefty five panel oak door quivered in protest. Dean Winterbottom shoved his velvet fainting sofa against his office door. He lifted it on one side to sheild the door.

“As you were saying Professor Valient?” Winterbottom asked.

“Please, call me Tiberius. While I have been abroad during most of your new tenure, I hope ...

I love you

With kisses and hugs

And valentine day cards carefully chosen at the drugstore

I love you

With belly laughs till I cry and pee a little

I love you

With laundry and vacuuming and why can’t you load the dishwasher

I love you

With hospitals and urinals and doctors without answers

I love you...

It’s hotter upstairs than down. I flipped my pillow hoping for a little coolness. Martin stirred in his sleep. I froze. I’d disappointed him by forgetting to remind him about his prescriptions. Then I did it again when he knocked over the glass I’d left on the counter. Holding my breath, I cursed myself for moving.

It was all I could do to save the evening. He was so angry but I didn’t cry or do...

“You know my father planted that oak tree right there,” Lizabeth said.

Shaking her hand, frail as a wren, pointed to the massive tree outside her window. Its stout branches reached into the second floor bedroom window. Its velvet green leaves brushed the sill gray. EJ looked up from the laundry she was folding. She visited Elizabeth everyday and had heard the story of the mighty oak approximatel...

Aaron was that friend. You know the kid you met when you were summering with your grandma and them. You know the friend you don’t have anything in common with anymore but you still see occasionally out of habit and the wife always send Christmas cards to. So when Aaron called me and invited me over for beers I said yes when every fiber of my being screamed no.

I was going to pull a last minute I...

I’ve walked these drenched streets

My footsteps echoing across decades

Lit only by gaslight

My shadow as dark as a midnight moor

Mysteries always around the corner

I walked these inky streets

A mournful violin shadows my trek

Logical reasoning awaits

Clients carry pocketfuls of woe

My pulse quickening as clues collect

I walk these well-read streets

Eager to climb the stairs up to 221B

Dodging...