no balloons
My husband’s aunt is 85, and she was just diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It’s late—the cancer, the time, the life. But the life is precious; they are all precious. We…
collective voices
In the mornings at Baltimore School for the Arts, all the music students (150? 200?) gather in one of the recital rooms and sing. When my daughter shadowed there, this…
you’re the tops
Topping my list of writing devices is The List. Lists are bare-bones instructions, yet they are also the meat. They are written with an affectionate detachment. They mean everything—and nothing.…
[uproar]
If it’s not mostly quarters, is change just unnecessary weight and an unsatisfying jangle? We’re used to doing the things we do the way we always do them. We’re efficient—and…
flotsam and jett-some
It's probably normal for people to give their pets nicknames in ways they wouldn't think to name their friends1—unless they're the guy making the copies. Marty's and my first dog,…
she will rock you—if there’s time
My daughter is running for student council president. I'm torn. She's a great kid who will do a great job. But when will she have the time?I used to tsk…
it’s only rock and roll, tyrone
The river’s muddy guts had backed up, explodedSpillin’ out the facts, fast and a lotSpillin’ out the facts of the city’s dirty secretsLike a city surfacing from out of the…
summer lovin’, had me a blast
Today, I nearly suffocated in my daughter’s room, buried alive under a mountain of clothing, a lot of it gorgeous, most of it too small. Half still had tags; the…
pierced
When she discovered that the glittery gem on my nose went all the way through it, my mother cried. “You’re forty- [inaudible mumbling],” she stuttered through the tears, as if…
my baby, he wrote me a letter!
When I was fourteen or so, I put a free pen pal ad in the back of Rock Scene Magazine—something about Cheap Trick girl seeks fans of same. Perhaps I…