A “civilized” Indian was one who found a way to tolerate and work with the foreigners who came from Europe. I have a rather involved fantasy which I dip into now and then. I’m on a television quiz show where the top prize is a million dollars. I get past the half-million level and the […]
A farmer of red dirt. This poem is set somewhere in time, between the last polio poster child and the end of home milk delivery, when they stopped making farmers (except for the exceptions). There was this old farmer I hung with three miles north of Fairland, Oklahoma, walking that funny way you do over […]
Can we sequence the DNA of goodness? Does the goodness gnome even exist? The falling “Newton’s apple” that triggered this for me, was the onset of autumn. Standing on the doorstep of winter’s sleep is strangely invigorating. Autumn is the season when everything does a lingering waltz toward dormancy and death. But even while prepping […]
Humor hurts. Why do you think they call it a “punch line”? True story. High winds contributed to a huge multi-vehicle pile-up on a major thoroughfare near our house during a big outdoor event with parades and pageantry. It was like this: An 18-wheeler jackknifed in gale-force winds, strewing its cargo of bananas, cream pies […]
The seeker puts a wish “out there” and the universe scurries to help. It works too. Except for the exceptions. I did my master’s thesis on cross-cultural communication while hitchhiking through Mexico, Central and South America. It was an audacious undertaking that began with a Broadway quality song-and-dance sales pitch to my grad school department […]
The relationship I have with hunting is, “it’s complicated,” as they say in the social media. I have Bambi issues. Best shot in the family with iron sights, was Mom. She stilled her breathing and heartbeat to mimic a cave dweller frozen in a glacier. When we were younger our whole family went out shooting. […]
