Grand Canyon

When I was a senior in high school, two boys I liked invited me to the Grand Canyon. It was a Sunday, a spring afternoon. One boy had a sexy accent, and the other had a sexy mind and his parents’ gas card. I turned them down because I had a delicate balance with my […]

The Keys

When I visited, I met prison guards and leaders who reeked of peace like a Zen master. And guards who seemed edgy. If there’s anything a prison needs, it’s peace. A lot of people are in there because their peace meters ran on empty too long.

Eating Your Words

There is a difference between kissing and talking about kissing. There is a difference between dating and marriage (apparently). And there is a difference between reading and memorizing, which is actually what I’m considering here. I took my students to a writing workshop last week, and one presenter explained the importance of memorizing poems. That […]

Snakes

It took about nine months to dismantle and excavate the ruins of the twin towers. The people who cut that steel and drove those trucks are still walking around with the burden of memories. What they saw, smelled, and touched. It is the cleanup, the aftermath, the long, day by day, out of the spotlight, dangerous drudgery of facing death that haunts me. When the cameras had floated on to other stories, they were still cutting, digging.