A pile of gray fur lay tucked in our blackberry bushes. We knew what had happened, simply by circumstantial evidence. The night before, a coyote was pacing our property. Our neighbor said her cat was mangled, scraped and scarred, but when she came outside at the sound of it all, the coyote ran off. Her cat […]

I dropped those newborns on his lap, like a brightly wrapped, present to a king. He sat, quiet. Holding them. Or looked up at me as if saying, “Again?”, half-smiling. It didn’t matter if the baby was Caucasian, Hispanic, Samoan, or African American. This strong man, with thick, calloused hands, and a hat that covered his […]

Have you ever seen those game shows? The ones where people are crammed in see-through booths, a switch is flicked, air blows, then the contestant grabs all the fying money they can, stuffing it anywhere they are able? Or an Easter egg hunt? Or black Friday? People get plowed over, so the hunters can grab their […]

Our fruit trees didn’t produce last year. It was like, in the middle of a nationwide pandemic, the trees blossomed, in anticipation of fruit, but then remained still… The flowers wide open, eventually browned, then fell to the ground. We didn’t know what was happening. For over a dozen years, our trees have produced crops; apples, […]

His muddy boots were a terrible mirror. Heavy steal toes, clomping up the stairs on the back porch. Tired, weary, covered with cement. The earth clung to my dad. And when he got home, I found joy in taking my tiny hands to help him unravel his laces, loosen those loops, and pull off his boots… […]

I lied to my dad. I knew I was doing it. Despite he had raised me to hold honesty in the highest regard… Of all the virtues, “Lying shatters your character”. I can still hear the heart of who he was, in me. Call me a sinner, not a saint; deceiver instead of a good person. […]