Molly, Lucy and Jonah
Annie and Kaiya
Mica and Elenor
Family NewsAfter being blessed with five granddaughters, I'm happy to announce my stepdaughter Annie and her husband Matt in Portland, OR, had a boy named Kaiya in May 2020, and my daughter Molly and her husband Martin in Bellingham, WA had a little boy named Jonah in March 2021.
The Tender Stones Even at that green age we knew to stay away from that garden of stones, those tender stones adorned with roses, crosses, angels blowing their horns toward heaven, short stones inscribed with just one date, just one Christian name, Baby. Even then, as we played ball on the broad, green lawns and raced our bikes along the tree-lined lanes, we felt the grief that hung like dead limbs above that shaded patch of grass set back from sight, that lingered like the stink of a decomposing racoon. Even then we understood that there was some grief too keen for us to bear, too soon for us to know at our green age, and so we pedaled slowly past that fenced-in place, that yard of short bones, rode past without a glance, without a word, the only sound those playing cards we’d clipped to our Schwinns with clothes pins, jacks and jokers slapping the spokes of our wheels slow as a failing pulse. Visit me on FaceBook! |
A Photo of Rusty
One of these stories is true: Either my old golden cocker knew he was going to die, dug himself a shallow grave by the pond in the side yard, crawled in and died with a smile on his face, or he got flattened by a city bus. Rusty was thirteen, half deaf, nearly blind, but still he could catch the occasional cottontail and lay it as offering on the rubber mat by the door, still spry enough to hobble through a Hula Hoop for a Milkbone, wise enough to foil surprise attacks by younger dogs. No, Rusty could not have been hit by a bus. I’ll buy the legend, thank you, keep the faded photo of the pound puppy in the sailor cap, toy rifle propped between his paws, willing to play war with a little boy in a world where dying was only and always make believe. Flannel Shirt It’s the way the shirt hangs just so in morning light mixing rain-cloud gray with sky blue and fern green it’s the light in the air just so and the shirt on the chair just right 
Photograph by Christopher Turner
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