“I’ve had sex with one Indian woman, 112 white boys, sixteen Black men, seven Asian men, three dudes of ambiguous ethnic identity, one really homely guy, and zero Native American men.” — Seymour Polatkin, poet. I just finished watching “The Business of Fancy Dancing” again and I feel as if this is one of the…
The Changes Come So Fast
My wife, Mary Esther, and I celebrated our wedding anniversary on June 22. We were married in 2002 and the time has just whipped by. So many different things have happened; it’s all good but sometimes there are hard surprises. Mary Esther has scoliosis, stenosis and various other things wrong with her spine. She had…
Stolen Lives
“For George Floyd: The Whole World was Watching”* Shawn Mottram, killed dead on October 12, 1998 by what Trooper Joseph Stone said was an accidental shot when he slipped while climbing a chain link fence with gun in hand. A kill shot. Stone shoots so well by accident that he can split a bullet in…
Taking The Homeless Census by Alexis Ivy: A Book Review
I read this marvelous book of poetry three times upon receiving it. It’s no wonder to me that her Crown of Sonnets named “The A-Street Shelter: A Crown of Sonnets” won the 2018 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship In Poetry prize. “Taking The Homeless Census” brings the reader into the world of homelessness with a jolt.…
All We Are Saying
The world we live in has been rocked by crisis after crisis. First the Coronavirus slipped in amongst us, taking, at first, the most vulnerable populations from our nursing homes, Veterans’ Homes, Senior Living Facilities and then attacking the people who have the least access to medical care because they are financially stressed, Black and…
Resiliency: A Moment In An Addict’s Time
If I made funny noises and ran around the room, I wouldn’t have to tell the therapist anything. I know my mother told him I wet the bed all the time. But no one else knows about the boy who said he would play doctor and stuck the stick up my rectum. And no one…
Senior Living in the Days of the Plague
The COVID-19 pandemic has me rethinking assisted housing for seniors. I’m watching the death toll among nursing homes and veteran facilities skyrocket. They are like petri dishes enabling the virus to leap from one human being to the next. I’m 74-years-old and my wife is 72. I’m grateful that we haven’t made the transition to…
Sheltering in Place
These are weird times. The doctors postponed Mary Esther’s spine surgery until June 10 because of the situation. Her lungs are challenged normally, so it’s important that she not get exposed to the coronavirus. This strange thing has put all our lives on hold. My heart goes out to people who are homeless and have…
Uncertainties and Impermanence
My wonderful wife, Mary Esther, and I just returned from a visit with the surgeon who will be operating on her back. It’s much more involved than we thought it would be, and we are meditating every day just to help us cope. We’re trying to keep it in the day, but we can’t help…
Book Review: Long Bright Mirror
“Long Bright Mirror” by Liz Moore, is a book that is both frightening and warm, about two sisters in Philadelphia who have been slammed by the opiate crisis. Mickey or Michaela, the older sister has become a police officer who regularly patrols the 24th District called Kensington. Her younger sister, Kacey, a heroin addict, is…