Published in Crow’s Feet

·Pinned

The Magic of Crows

Sparrows, cardinals, finches, a red-bellied woodpecker, all come to the old concrete birdbath to splash and drink. The crows come to wash things. They have a nest nearby and are likely softening up the food for their chicks. Whenever a crow lands there’s an Akk ak call, accent on the…

Creative Non Fiction

5 min read

Published in The Haven

·Pinned

Lies my Mother Told Me

That’s a Tomato Plant, Sweetie — I was proud of that “Dare to Say No” T-shirt that mom picked up at the JS (that’s what we called any of the myriad of thrift shops where we bought all our clothes except for shoes and underwear (it’s short for Junk Store). An impressionable, eager to please kid…

Humor

4 min read

Published in The Creative Cafe

·Pinned

Give Sorrow Words

Writing the stuff that hurts I have an essay that went live this week. I wrote it months ago and I’m happy that it’s found a good home. It’s a very personal piece that was a sucker-punch to write and, if not for my critique group, would have ended up…

Writing Memoir

4 min read

Published in P.S. I Love You

·Pinned

Darling, Meet my Boyfriend

A story of loving two men — It wasn’t love at first sight or anything so profound. Instead, it was a gradual process of getting to know one another. Nigel was a biologist. He’d written his doctoral dissertation on the milkweed bug. I learned many interesting facts from Nigel. When I complained about the critters that were…

Relationships

3 min read

Published in SNAPSHOTS

·Jul 26, 2021

Backyard in Bloom

I always take my camera when I walk the dogs or go to a park. You never know what you’ll see. A gator, a snake, a wood stork, a strange…

Photography

2 min read

PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE

Backyard in Bloom

Published in Crow’s Feet

·Jul 21, 2021

Apps Are Us

How my phone became my BFF — We had a black rotary phone on a small end table in the living room. If I picked it up very carefully and held my breath, I might be lucky and our neighbors, our party-line, wouldn’t know I was listening in. I’d hold my hand tightly over the mouthpiece, but…

Nonfiction

4 min read

Published in Crow’s Feet

·May 9, 2021

Still a Mother

After all these years — When my son was three years old, he told me a story. He described being in utero. Swimming, his hair floating in the waves. The whooshing sound like a heartbeat, like his drum. A feeling like when the cat makes bread on his chest and purrs. He said there was…

Mothers Day

4 min read

Published in Spiritual Tree

·May 9, 2021

Nature’s Artistry

It’s not always pretty — Nature’s Art, like man’s Not always pretty Sometimes there’s decay Bones picked and bleached white Catching the sun, Hollowing out Making room inside for tiny scurries Millipeds and other such wonders That will fashion leaves Into lace of the most delicate sort Then feed the earth And start the cycle again Not always…

Spiritual Weekly Prompt

1 min read

Poetry

Nature’s Artistry

It’s not always pretty

Nature’s Art, like man’s
Not always pretty
Sometimes there’s decay
Bones picked and bleached white

Catching the sun, Hollowing out
Making room inside for tiny scurries
Millipeds and other such wonders
That will fashion leaves

Into lace of the most delicate sort
Then feed the earth
And start the cycle again
Not always…

Published in ILLUMINATION

·Mar 23, 2021

Pandemic Diaries

What’s changed in a year? — As a home care nurse in Baltimore, I learned years ago how to get in and out of a house without touching any surface with my bare hands. My first AIDS patient had open sacral wounds and explosive diarrhea. I was nervous, so I called my supervisor for a reassuring…

Covid 19

5 min read

Published in Crow’s Feet

·Mar 10, 2021

Give me a Sign

To make up my mind — Phyllis had always had a difficult time making up her mind. Her mother never gave her much chance to practice, and so that particular skill just never fully developed. Regular or decaf? Chocolate or vanilla? The white socks or the blue ones? Simple choices people make hundreds of times every…

Fiction

4 min read