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Toads are unlovely: plump, bumpy, gawkward. But I’ve been fond of them since I was young. Their inoffensive, comical dignity amused me. Gaze into a toad’s lovely golden eyes and you quickly become its friend. Why, then, did I shoot a toad in my backyard when, age twelve, I hadContinue Reading

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The trees are old in the forest of Arden. They hold many secrets. The greenest grow at the border of the tame world. Supple firs and bendy pines peak above sprawling hardwoods. Tall, wide oaks dot the perimeter charming the senses with song birds and the fluffy-tailed squirrels. Lush mossContinue Reading

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the sky was there  distorted at the edges   but there  clear crystal blue     his wings burned  his mind locked  he battled the Plexiglas sky    over and again   his head bumped  hoping   for an improbable escape    I was afraid  his death   would stainContinue Reading

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Venturing fingers among the tangle of blackberry thorn canes, questing their dark elusive prize, plucking each plump bundle, then easing it from the labyrinth of defending claws, I discover one gleaming berry ridden by a petite beetle, her flat, yellow shield an extravagant contrast against the obsidian fruit’s glistening bulb.Continue Reading

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Kenya made space in my heart for love. Before her, there was only me and vague words. We think about hearts being a specific size or shape. In fact, they are intentionally flexible by design. They have a purpose. They hold space within us. We condition them to extend ourContinue Reading

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The night of a storm, a duck banged into the window. That’s Quackers, my daughter said. Rain fell onto the window. Branches tapped the walls. I came to the window. There was the duck in the mud on its back. It did not move like a duck, but like meatContinue Reading

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“Thence up he flew, and on the Tree of Life, / The middle tree and highest there that grew, / Sat like a cormorant.” John Milton The cormorant finds me walking aloneand dives right intakes over my left ventricleand changes my blood into salt waterI feel held for the firstContinue Reading

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I was riding a blind horse down the center of town Horns honked Women screamed Men heehawed mouths wide open– all I could see is calamity; the horse saw nothing, followed the guidance of my gentle nudge of the reins on his neck showing him his way home after cashingContinue Reading

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Billy was a good Christian as he walked to school. Billy had been a good Christian all weekend and for the last four years since his mom let him get baptized at the tender age of 7. He was glad to have direction in his life and he carried God’sContinue Reading

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Slow pearl bodyA gleam under waterEven the dog pausesTo consider thatYou are aliveNow you are aliveMoving in slow circlesAround the pondAnd we are alive watchingYou in your ignorant beautyExist so hardThe trees bend downAnd elsewhere the oceanPulls itself toward yourGlow in the park’s sinkWhere sickness is nowhere nearYour milky scalesThatContinue Reading