Posts Tagged ‘Family’

My Mother-in-Law’s Garage

The remote door opener clicks under my thumb. From my parked car across the tidy suburban street, I watch the two-car garage door lurch upward and begin to glide open. The accumulation of medical equipment and old resentments ends today. The final clear-out begins. My mother-in-law still owns the house....

May 20th, 2013 | Essays, Featured | Read More

At David’s Wedding

the honeysuckle are trumpets announcing your arrival at the altar you built petals sacrifice themselves in praise and laughing near our parents an impossible shadow yawns from the base of a hydrangea bush the faintest shape of a shy groomsman outlined on the ground holding a bouquet in his branches our...

May 11th, 2013 | Poetry | Read More

Home

For the first time in years I really miss the cold floors I miss the rain affected corners I miss the webs and the spiders under my books The slippery paths that would lead to a hideout The muddy slippers and the broken umbrellas Sunshine in the morning and sunshine in the afternoon The blanket of fog...

January 26th, 2013 | Poetry | Read More

Five Kisses

My grandpa’s room was on a high-up floor of a hospital in Lansing, Michigan. Walking down the hall, we could see the State Capitol building through a window. I walked back and forth across that window, looking at the white peaked building. The strange thing that I remember is that the closer to the...

October 18th, 2012 | Essays, Family | Read More

KC Can’t Skate

I had never ice-skated before, only roller-bladed. My younger brother Rocky and I would spend countless hours on the back patio pretending to be Wayne Gretzky and Jurri Kurri. KC would sometimes play goalie, but not with roller blades. He was older than us, but KC couldn’t skate. My dad decided...

October 9th, 2012 | Essays, Sports | Read More

Fenced In

My grandmother’s house had been torn down after she sold her property, which fronted a muddy inlet in Puget Sound Bay near Anacortes, Washington, to a lumber company. This was the house where her four babies were born, where she and my grandfather loved and fought and separated and loved again, and...

October 8th, 2012 | Essays, Featured | Read More

Embraced by Mother God

With the advent of the holiday season drawing near, many of us will be spending a little extra time with family. Depending on your background and situation, this family time may be a joyous occasion filled with many happy memories, or one choked with dread and despair. Perhaps you find little reason...

October 4th, 2012 | Essays, Featured | Read More

The High Calling of the Second Son

The fact has never been lost on me that I am the second son of a second son. I have one older brother, just like my father before me. I also have one younger sister, just like my father before me, so I am also the middle child of a middle child. But for whatever reason, that fact doesn’t speak...

September 25th, 2012 | Becoming the Great Us, Essays | Read More

Drought

The sun-scorched grass prickled on her bare feet. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. As she walked across the yard. Just a couple steps to the fence. To the shady spot under the old tree. She never could remember what kind of tree it was. Just knew it was big. And that when it stormed she feared it would...

August 4th, 2012 | Fiction | Read More

Horsepower

One of my favorite memories of my 16-year-old daughter is of when she was about three. She had this favorite ride-on toy that she almost wore out the wheels of. A small, white plastic horse with a painted-on red saddle and yellow reins. Ellen would climb on its back, kick off with her short toddler...

August 3rd, 2012 | Essays, Featured | Read More