The Trust of Animals It’s no small thing This cat curled in your lap Eyes shut, purring It matters As much to you As to them This unlikely kinship The meeting of large and small Wild heart and civilized mind Confidence in kindness Easily given or Incrementally earned You’ll know As you step over The unflinching little body Sprawled on …
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Mingy Moldy Dead Mouse Smell Mingy moldy dead mouse smell Like the grease behind your ear Where is it coming from? Why is it here? Pond-scummed dishes Wafting from the sink Bulging trash bag Leaking old shrimp stink Usually it’s the litter box Ensconced in the bathroom Sending urine bulletins Demanding action soon Mingy moldy dead mouse smell Permeating my …
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I was playing an arraignee for “Law and Order” and they paired me with a young lawyer to sit in the background while the main actors talked to the judge. They told us to ignore the action up there and confer with our lawyers as we waited for our cases to come up. I like to have a scenario in …
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You’re admiring the trays of petunias, including a radioactive purple pulsing in the April sun, when you feel a soft touch on your bare leg. You turn and look down to espy your accoster, a three-foot-high plant with shiny dark green leaves and long, questing vines waving in the wind. You know this plant, you had one a while back, …
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The assistant directors had come through the holding area and picked 40 or so background actors they wanted for the day’s big scene, audience members at a strip club emceed by an unknown female comic. The rest of us, in our greased-down hair, high-waisted pants, porkpie hats and 1960s evening dresses, would likely sit around on folding chairs for the …
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Every month there is a different topic at the NYC edition of Smut Slam, a venue for stories about sex. In April the topic was “narcissism” … which let’s just say was right in my wheelhouse!
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The email coupon said 20 percent off the ENTIRE purchases made on Wed. Nov. 22. Usually it’s just 20 percent off your most expensive item. Shopping on the day before Thanksgiving was not on my list of essential activities. But I wanted to pick up a book I’d reserved at the library before it shut down for the long weekend. …
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The annoying thing is that you had noticed, just that morning, how precariously perched was your late mother’s country kitchen bric-a-brac. The oval-shaped, white pottery container thingy – what do even call this this dish-basket filled with dusty crap? – that you brought back from their home. You had noticed your mother’s cheerful china tchotchke creeping over the edge of …
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There is nothing to fear, except Life, Which, truly, can turn on a dime But, mostly, speeds along linearly Faster than you think and then Here you are Almost 60 You’re doing fine You’re in a good place Confidence growing as you Explore this wilderness of Time, Which can run out, yes, But also creep along in a Blur of …
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I had an essay published in Huffingtonpost.com. Thanks to Noah Michelson and James Michael Nichols in the Queer Voices section for giving it a chance! This is the kind of writing I want to do going forward … not chasing school shootings, suicide bombings and Donald Trump! What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been: 30 Years of HIV tests …
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