Not long ago, perhaps last evening, while I was relaxing on the deck, a book on my lap, bony feet propped  on a stool, I watched my...

Will you fix the distance for me? Hold it with a horse and rider. They seem to know where they’re going. Hold it with the dust plume of a...

From  that rough-legged hawk’s point of view a field mouse is more interesting than you.

Apologies to William Carlos Williams                      1. Burn down the house. Be certain it’s your house. Don’t rush to save the...

Coming home from Carmel in an SUV with four other women, don’t worry about looking silly  as you file into the ladies room  at the Quick...

Susanna and the Elders by Lorenzo Lotto, 1517 See the overweight woman in a red dress? The tiny figure reminds me of my dead mother. Look...

Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe  She ruined the picnic when she took off her clothes. No peeking, no sneaking, nothing to suppose. I wore...

That fancy name for the impulse to jump from the top of the Empire State, climb over the rail of the Golden Gate, step off the Grand...

She hears it whirring in the darkened room and knows another summer bat has found its passage to her tangled August dream of fruit and...

He does not come disguised as Brenda Starr’s Black Orchid man, appearing suddenly in the elevator into which I step. He does not come...

1. If  the Venus of Willendorf Is Packin’ I went to a Drop In’s Welcome salon in Reno the other day and the gal doing hair had some kinda...

1. L’esprit de l’escalier And there I am at the top of the stair hoping  to leave  the scene with the perfect bon mot. Home in bed  I...

See this snapshot of an aluminum lawn chair. Notice how the late evening light dignifies plastic chairs or rusted cars, even the carcass...

I wish you had seen the waif in  her hand-me-down Elsa gown, arms wide, singing “Let It Go.” She knew the words, this petite chanteuse,...

Motes of light grace an apron fold. Garments illuminate a face contemplative and secretive. With lapis lazuli and yellow paint, Vermeer...

There's always someone with an Affliction you can't mention Because he's in denial. "Cats!" Why are we talking about cats? There's always...

A badged man waves paper over my hands. I ask what he wants to find. "Traces of explosives," the man explains. "Wow!" I remark to my...

You leave this place quite sure you won’t return before another year has come and gone. You know that in the interim you’ll learn of...