The male cardinal outside my window at 5:43am

seems depressed. His usual courting call ending in a rapid, repetitive note tuit-tuit-tuit-tuit-tuit-it-it-ititititit is now short, by more than half. He never arrives at the final flourish his pièce de résistance his pleading, staccato insistence for a mate tuit-tuit-tuit-tuit resigned … Continue reading

Nest Led Lives

winter has laid a soft sheet on a nest left dreaming of featherless pencil-thin necks holding up sunny-yellow beaks full-open, throats begging wobbly with the weight of birth the urgency of hunger and looking like tulips in the winds of … Continue reading

Strain

I spend fallow days sewing small repairs by hand working on old huipils, second-hand jackets cotton pulled loose by relentless movement my fingers ache pinching worn woven fabric vision blurs in the impassable needle’s eye I ask forgiveness and reach … Continue reading

The Great Valentine’s Day Balloon Escape

So, picture this … balloons making-a-break for it while you watch from a line at the dollar store Everyone’s eyes are fixed on the scene outside where a weary, middle-aged clerk is trying to help a very impatient, irritable man … Continue reading