1. Tonite “Trudy, you have to come see this,” I said, coming in from the backyard. “Is it about the compost?” she asked. “No,” I said and walked back outside. “Wow,” she said, looking at the clear sky. “The stars are bright.” 2. Last Fall Back in the fall, just as it was starting to […]
Monthly Archives: March 2012
She Slowed to Look
1. Confusion came with warm weather and rain. Lantana and Lilies. Cowpen and Four Nerve and Blackfoot Daisies. Salvia and Spiderwort and Prairie Verbena. Ten-petal Anemone and Agarita and Echinacae. Texas Redbud. They all blossomed early, and the yard has exploded in purples and yellows and whites. 2. There is a school girl who walks by our house […]
Ages Were Long
“Do you remember when your father died?” “Yes,” my father said, looking up with wide eyes. “That was two days before my master’s results came in. He never got to see them.” “That was May 1950,” he added. “My father was very old. In his 80s at least, perhaps more.” He was quiet for a […]
Waiting for the Train to Bareilly
“Hah!” my father chuckled. His eyes sparkled and he was smiling. “All these details come back…” “When my family took me to the train station, they took me in a bullock cart.” He looked at me with wide eyes when he said the words, bullock cart. “And I was very tired when the left me. […]
Abdul Khaliq
We wanted Abdul Khaliq to go to school . We wanted him to go the the same school I had gone to. To the government high school that was taught in English. But the headmaster said no. He said there was no room. We decided to take our case to the Secretary of Education, because you […]
Dogs and Pines and Moon
The dogs walked around the yard a bit, sniffed the balmy air and went back inside. It was dark. I couldn’t see my feet in the shadows. I stood there in the warm night letting my eyes adjust. A breeze came up. It blew thru the branches of the pine tree and made that lonesome […]