Daddy warned me about love: Son, don’t let your eyes take you on a trip your body can’t handle. I should have listened. Instead, I fell in love with all five of them, even took ˜em home with me. Life has not been the same since. ********** Ah, love, yes. But too many lovers? Short-term euphoria, long-term endurance. No liberal, unde...Read More
Abandon tedium, replace redundancy. Renew the excitement of life. Get into cuddling, the next new thing.It’s a dismal, gunmetal gray day on the Georgia coast. No sun. The kind of day to cuddle up with something: a bottle, a book or a blonde. Or Waffle House hash browns. Ace Blackbanks, an old friend (chronologically speaking) drops by, shambles ups...Read More
It’s the week after Christmas, or ‘holiday’ if you’re part of the alchemist crowd that mixed Jesus with Visa and got Santa. Hopefully you dodged the dictates of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion that mandated all celebrations be generic. Whichever season it’s called, the last week in the year seems to be a peaceful one. The frenzy is over. The ...Read More
Deadlines…cruel and unusual punishment inflicted on writers by editors. Mine calls. By tomorrow, she says. What’s the theme, I ask? Fiftieth anniversary of the Beatles’ invasion, she says. Write about how their advent influenced high school students. I remind her that my high school days ended before the mop-haired Brits arrived. Well, she says, wr...Read More
If inspiration comes in spurts, mine has sputtered out. The dreaded ‘writer’s block’ has filled the vacuum. Ideas are harder to find than hen’s teeth. ...Read More
The searing pain in my hip shut down my mobility. Fix me, the nerve said. Which explains why I sit in the reception room of the Pain Clinic, waiting my turn. Pain and mostly old women fill the room, waiting also for relief. A man with Einstein hair sits across from me, unkempt, grimacing. The nude on his large silver belt buckle smiles. His wife is...Read More
Nothing unglues the fabric of small towns faster than Friday night high school football. The blood of this gladiatorial sport flows hot and red. Every father relives his own glory days. Bragging rights are on the line. I know these things. My name is Harold. I survived it. ********** I w...Read More
Seeing is a relative term. It depends on the viewer’s perspective. Men have selective eyesight. It’s a prime cause of consternation between the sexes. ********** It was a small oak leaf. Insignificant. Once green, now brown. It lay curled in a fetal position in the crevice of the shoe moulding at ...Read More
Something fundamental is happening. Have you noticed? Things are changing fast. Children are becoming billionaires overnight. Their fingers monetize everything new. Nothing’s safe. Irrelevance stalks our generation. Tiny hands are at work, at play, at war. Minds are being colonized by apps, digits and pixels. Communication is inst...Read More
“He stopped loving her today, they placed a wreath upon his door, soon they’ll carry him away, he stopped loving her today.” George T. Jones. A classic obituary. ********** My wife and I are having dinner. Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, spinach and biscuits. The Heinz ketc...Read More