Can you taste the peaches? I think I can. I know what they mean by ripe old age. When Nana gets bumped she bruises right away. She cries “Ouch!” and a dark splotch wells up under her skin. Past ripe is rotten. Part of her went bad and they cut it off. She takes medicines…
grandpa g
Grandpa G will most likely be remembered for his hearing loss, temper, and infrequent bathing. I think back to the week — or was it two? — that he drove me through Idaho, Utah, Oregon and Washington — hollering at me to take my nose out of my book and look at the scenery. He…
the 50s
The worst part about it was the promises he made when he was drunk. At least when he was sober, he meant what he said — never failed to follow through on a beating. He passed out chest down on the heating grate in the floor. His wife and daughter tugged his arm, straining to…
dad
I only saw her dad in the shadows at the end of the hall and in the welts on her legs. She walked too loud across the kitchen.
success
Success isn’t measured in flush toilets, cars, sky scrapers, or 8 to 5 jobs. It’s the size of one’s house – not the physical building, but the people in it. And how one feels inside.
richard
He flew off the Golden Gate Bridge. Threw his arms out, but no wings unfurled. The black t-shirt rippled up, abdomen sporting a trail of short brown hair. Blue jean cuffs arced; white athletic socks peeked out over looped laces. 21 years was enough.
cancer
The doctors killed her. They took her shoulder, poked holes through her back, left only a pinch of hair. She said she was a monster. Her left arm hung down her side. Her lungs filled with foamy brown. She was fine. Beautiful. Strong. It would have been longer if she’d never gone. Never let them…
truth
Where is the truth? The person on the outside is able to see an event for what it is at that moment. An old man bending to kiss his wife and her turning away and his confusion and hurt in the shift of wrinkles. And the outsider thinking she should have let him kiss her…
dreaming of grandpa chuck
I dreamed about my grandfather the other night. The skin on his forearms was relatively smooth, like I remember it being when I was a little girl. Somehow his being buried and having shrunk so that his skin was too large for him was all a mistake. When I’m awake, I mostly pretend that he’s…
funerals
The body in the coffin wasn’t him, but he wasn’t anywhere else, so it was, and that’s what made me cry.