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Two Stories

I spend a lot of time thinking up improvements on God. When Frank thinks I’m busy typing letters, I’m actually preparing my list. Frank is my boss, the pastor of a large church. He is rotund, and endlessly talkative.

Broken Promises

Playing board games, returning a rented cap and gown, counting the days

Essences

Sunbeams

The family is a good institution because it is uncongenial. The men and women who, for good reasons and bad, revolt against the family, are, for good reasons and bad, revolting against mankind. Aunt Elizabeth is unreasonable, like mankind. Papa is excitable, like mankind. Our younger brother is mischievous, like mankind. Grandpapa is stupid, like the world; he is old, like the world.

G.K. Chesterton

The Lie

Circles

The women of my life stand in a full circle around me, waiting for me to choose among them. The clothes and expression and posture of each woman recall a particularly intense moment in our lives together. I look into their eyes and see them pleading. This is my dream and my nightmare.

Children Kissing

“Ma! Ma, Patty’s up the big tree again kissing Billy! Ma!” I kept looking at Patty’s smooth face across the branch from me in the tree, and hearing Tony shouting into the house.

Sonnet For Contemplating A Woman

Juliet

I call her “Juliet.” I don’t remember her name, and it is possible that I never knew it. Her image came to me at six o’clock every evening for years. I went to the upper floor of my house, entered any room, and turned off the light.

Milkweed