It was stuck under my ‘SEE NO EVIL, SPEAK NO EVIL, HEAR NO EVIL’ coir door mat encircled by silvery lining – a business card. I bent to have a look, it was sable-black with a childish drawing of fork and knife including decorative pale-mint highlights. I bent all the way to pick it up. It felt metallic and fibrous to my responsive fingertips, almost lamé(…)
In the name of gender equality, my daughter (Bluebell) tried out for and got the part of King Lobster in her school’s production of Alice in Wonderland. Never missing a moment to get-in-on-the-act, my newish lover (Opus) quoted Flaubert to her. ‘Of all lies, art is the least untrue.‘ Not to be upstaged, Bluebelle (a Swedish(…)
*** On awakening one overcast morning a week or so after last Halloween (2016, a grim time), I shuffled into the kitchen to pour a cup of pre-made coffee and found things not as I’d left them. A piscine smell had vaporized out of thin air; not a fresh-from-the-ocean scent but a noxious hold-your-nose-odor. A vivid scene from a favorite film came to mind, The Tin Drum, when eels(…)
After picking up a container of coffee with half-and-half, the dry cleaning, and finally, a roast turkey sandwich with raw onion, mayo and lettuce on a Kaiser roll, I lowered my head and pushed against the raw wind, hurrying home. I welcomed the dry heat filling the lobby of my building, as a chill had cut through me. The crooked man(…)
***It was dusk and I could hear snow shovels scraping the asphalt below as folks dug out their buried cars. These parked cars were pinned in by mounds of dirty milk pushed against them by rasping snowplows shunting new-fallen-snow throughout last night’s blizzard. In the dimming light I searched the bookshelves for a Chinese translation recently received. Its arrival had been a source of satisfaction as none of my books had been translated into(…)
ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER in Rio de Janeiro: A new species of lion tamarin has been discovered on an island off the coast. The lion tamarin is a squirrel-size monkey with a mane like a lion. in Jincun: The couple have four children. They are new migrants (pioneers) arriving at their new home; a mud house. The(…)
DIMINISHMENT (working title) An opera in one act based on events in the life of Alberto Giacometti. Alberto Giacometti – a Swiss sculptor – Tenor Diego Giacometti – his younger brother, also an artist – Bartone Annetta Giacometti – their mother – Mezzo-soprano Peter van Meurs – an older Dutchman – Base Policeman – Bass-baritone Coachman –(…)
Least Likely To Meet four boys born in the City of L: The boy born in February was bathed in the kitchen sink. He was slight, pale, had pimples. His father drove a green bus. The boy born in June was called ‘a horrible piece of red meat’ by his father.(…)
In its literature, the Carole Lombard Savoy Home for Mature Adults is described as ‘nestled within’ four acres of tended grounds planted with bougainvillea, queen palms and eucalyptus. It’s(…)
