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Vocation

Essays, Memoirs, & True Stories

Lawn Skeletons

As far as I know, the first house in the neighborhood to adopt a year-round skeleton display was a small Cape Cod a couple of blocks from me. The skeletons sat side by side, day after day, in their Adirondack chairs, holding hands as if starring in a Cialis commercial.

By Tom McAllister September 2023
Essays, Memoirs, & True Stories

What I Don’t Tell My Wife

There are many things I don’t tell my wife of ten years: Because she has asked me not to. Because she carries her own burdens. Because she has told me mine are too much.

By Craig Reinbold August 2023
Essays, Memoirs, & True Stories

A Face In Judgment

A young man stands at the lectern: nineteen years old, athletic, thick black hair down to his shoulders. I’ll call him Marco. Today my job is to decide whether to send him to prison.

By Devin Odell August 2023
The Dog-Eared Page

Quiet, Please

Gordon Hempton On The Search For Silence In A Noisy World

We must recognize that we’ve largely lost quiet, even in our most pristine, natural places. But we can still choose to value quiet more as a culture.

By Leslee Goodman July 2023
Essays, Memoirs, & True Stories

Field Guide to Falling Ill

I can’t say what it’s like to suffer from a severe, chronic illness, the kind that knocks your life into a new orbit. But I can tell you what it’s like to be in the postscript of illness, its undead state, where the crisis has passed but recovery isn’t certain. It’s a dull, heavy place.

By Jonathan Gleason April 2023
Poetry

Ode To The Man Who Gave Me A Dinosaur Notepad On Our Hinge Date

Because he didn’t think girls don’t like dinosaurs. Because he didn’t assume / he was entitled to have sex with me because he bought me a taco. / Because our date was an hour. Because what he gave me was light / and easy to carry.

By Emily Sernaker March 2023
Essays, Memoirs, & True Stories

Sparrow’s Guide To Business

When you walk on sand, you leave footprints. When you work, you leave “workprints.” The people who come behind you will judge you by your workprints.

By Sparrow February 2023
The Dog-Eared Page

Mister Kim

Mr. Kim is abrupt. He is brief. He is short. He is terse. He is direct. He does not beat around the bush. He brooks no nonsense. He is from elsewhere.

By Brian Doyle December 2022
Photography

I Hope You Find What You’re Looking For

Often, when I’m out wandering with my camera, some kind person will help me with directions, then call out as I’m heading down the road, “I hope you find what you’re looking for!” It’s a wish that floats around in my mind, challenging me.

Text And Photographs By Gloria Baker Feinstein November 2022
Readers Write

Tools

A father’s lesson, a son’s apology, a husband’s surprise

By Our Readers October 2022