ONCE UPON A TIME there was a mother and a son named Jack. Jack was becoming older and his mother thought, “Well, it’s time to give him a little more responsibility. Our cow is getting old and no longer gives milk. I’ll ask Jack to take the cow to the market and sell her.” Jack and his mother were poor people, so this was a big responsibility. If Jack failed, […]
Brian J. Doyle | We Did
DID WE PUNCH AND HAMMER AND JAB EACH OTHER as children thrashing and rambling a large family in a small house filled with brothers and one older sister with sharp bony fists and no reluctance to use them? We did. Did we use implements like long whippy maple branches and mom’s bamboo garden poles and dad’s old sagging tennis rackets and redolent pieces of oozy lumber stolen from the new […]
Julia Poole | Wrestling with Myself
ON A WINTER EVENING, I sat in my parked 4Runner, alone. From the radio, Top 40 tunes droned. Blowing snow swirled around bundled parents walking from the parking lot toward the high school building. No sense waiting any longer. After dreading this night for days, I rallied the courage to move. Slamming the 4 Runner door, I crunched across the snow-covered parking lot and then hustled through the door. A […]
Martin Willitts, Jr. | Fathers and sons (selected poems)
Some Boys Grow In Their Father’s Shadows, Some Erase Their Father’s Shadow There are shoes that never fit. There are hammers that never pound sense. There are some fish that elude us. Some of us never measure up. Never fit in a neat category; not even close. Some of us drop underhand tossed baseballs. Some of us will never lift weights. Some of us will wear bottle-cap glasses. Some […]
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