The Canadian canoe submerged as we got in too clumsily. The cushions, brought thoughtfully for comfort were soaked along with everything else. Then we discovered that we were unable to co-ordinate our paddling so moving along the narrow canal in a straight line was impossible. Thus we made slow progress. And then we came to... Continue Reading →

I encountered death at eight. Not people death, that happened at ten. Fish death, and autopsy, and undertaking.   My grandmother, a petit but wiry thing, would knead leftover oatmeal into balls. These I gently inserted into a minnow trap, walked it down the dock and lowered away. Minnows entered and ate their last meal.... Continue Reading →

I taught my wife chess too well. She countered all my moves with ease. "Chinese or pizza tonight?"   I didn't care. "Pick one."   Okay— Chinese. "Let's get pizza." There were also good times— long talks on hikes with dogs, laughs over sushi and sake but just enough rejection that I felt like failure.... Continue Reading →

I want to steal the night air, Make it my captive. Bathe my skin With its dewy magic. The starlit Spray that fills my lungs, replenishes My spirit. I’m reminded of being alive In the stillness between midnight and dawn. The lushness evoked by the crickets’ hymn, A song that sends my soul searching For... Continue Reading →

It’s the noise the used umbrella makes when it’s closed and thuds wetly on the floor and it’s the boy waving wanly goodbye and getting on the bus and it’s her trying to be nice to you because she wants something and your skin crawls more than usual and it’s the same songs cynically played... Continue Reading →

I can guarantee, I won’t be killed by a Great White shark as I swim in the English Channel, I will never rob a bank, I guarantee that I am without ambition of any kind and I love cats and wine, I can guarantee that I won’t perish in outer-space or by a pistol duel at... Continue Reading →

Packed us up shipped us off across seas Indian to Caribbean lowest caste captive labor   Chains torn indigo to gold settled again away up North among new faces for raw hopes   Where we are told Go back home! And we would if only we knew what was home Photo by Pok Rie on... Continue Reading →

We are driving home. Dark stretches across the sky. Rain thumps the windshield. From the back seat, my gaze is steady on the glass, moving lines of rain held between the profiles of my parents―my mother's black hair against the seat, the rigid musculature of my father.   Square lighted windows of houses glare like... Continue Reading →

After these many weeks, your body is like a once-familiar town that I’m uneasy in. Something is no longer right. I walk the same streets, but no more as someone who should be there, whose natural place it is, to walk them. I’ve become a stranger now, mimicking belonging that was mine before this cruel separation that... Continue Reading →

Seeking a purpose on the curious island surrounded by land to the farthest peaks lush prairies devoid of what he once knew. Abandoned was the hope of a kin stranger in the lives of those once near not even a plea could reach his teary gaze. Space empty as the cosmos imprisoned his flesh tighter... Continue Reading →