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Grandparent Love

We sat on the flat rock by the shore of Lake Pontchartrain dropping pebbles into the water-filled crevice of the rock while we watched the red ball of the sun drop swiftly—it’s disappearing as we watch!—into the blue clouds, rounded as mountains. As Tom and I said our goodbyes, Aubrey said, “I had fun dropping pebbles into the pond...

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The Ramones and Me

I didn’t run with a crowd that liked the Ramones. I didn’t run with much of a crowd at all. During that period of my life, I was on my own emotionally, completing my schooling, being very functional in my choices. Not so for my music. Inside those idiosyncratic choices there lived the Ramones. I heard it and I loved it. “I...

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I’m Bogged and I Know It

It’s hard to live in a place where you know you’re failing. When I first started writing, all my writing teachers gushed over my work. Rare voice, they said. True gift, they opined. Literary journals I admired–like the Chicago Review—sent me notes saying, we’re not taking this piece but we know we’re going to be reading about you in the future....

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My Wednesdays

I never know what to do with Wednesdays. At 8:00, I go to church. The priest sometimes stops the liturgy to urge us to look overhead and watch the light show: dust motes floating in the sunbeams from the stained glass windows. Today, because it’s Fourth of July week, the guitarist during communion plays “This Land is Your Land.”...

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Dogs and the Dead

Dogs don’t visit the dead. Lord knows, I’ve tried to get them interested. When we lost Lucy, I yanked Atticus and Providence down to the river bank where I stood gazing at her grave. They mostly sniffed and peed. When only Providence remained, she telegraphed her boredom loud and clear, even when I told her she would be lying next...

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How Have Your Dreams Changed?

(Written today at Door of Hope Writing Group) When I was in junior high, I wanted to be a Viking. A Viking wife, actually, who stood on the deserted beach and threw logs on a blazing bonfire as I gazed out to sea, awaiting the return of the long-unseen ship. In high school, I dreamed of moving to Maine and living on the pounding coastline where...

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