Midsummer

She’s still living with the consolation-prize cat. “Haughty,” she says. “Patches gives me the cold shoulder.” My grandmother, the cat, and I, all green eyed, all on the couch. “They are building a new Alzheimer’s unit,” she says. “I don’t think I have it. Do you?” The cat jumps to the windowsill to watch the […]

Furniture

Friends were redecorating, and brought me a La-z-boy. I wasn’t completely committed to accepting a big piece of furniture. Then someone told me, “Maybe you should have a comfortable place to sit in your apartment.” Although I am thirty-five, I don’t have a mature view of furniture. Furniture is something other people give me when […]

In The Name Of

I’m not who I thought I was. I had this little myth that most of my ancestors were draft-dodgers, and that they were rather recent comers to this country. Parts of this are true: Schurmans left the colonies because they were loyal to King George. Several of my ancestors left Europe because they lived in […]

Growing Season

The grapes are teenagers, but they look like babies. They are the size of big peas, but a different green, a lighter, clearer green, a green that says I am not ready. They are hard like plastic buttons, and the last part of their maturing is to just swell and swell. Juice. To become almost […]