FIRST BLOOD

The municipality of Minneapolis is across the mighty Mississippi River from the home I share with my husband and our son in the adjacent twin city, 11 miles from Cup Foods, the neighborhood grocery where a grandfather and father of three made his last commercial transaction, for a pack of cigarettes.  It became his last, after the $20 ( Read more... )

Message In A BottlePeople who’ve traveled far out there, alone and afraid, hungry and beaten down in the emptiness and desolation that is all that remains of what we used to be, often come across our little hamlet here and are astounded at our endurance, our fortitude.  More than once, we’ve been asked by wild-eyed, half-crazed, road weary ( Read more... )

THE Simple Life

Our new home is a work in progress; there is much to do.  I see you struggling with what to tackle first.  Clearly, you’re overwhelmed.  I take your hand, calm your nerves, and we make a list of what should be done when.  I strategize, prioritize, and dream of our future.  At the beginning, I can tell you don’t understand it all, ( Read more... )

Disintegration

Every day you come to me ( Read more... )

The New Guy

The concierge caught me with a note on my way into the locker room this afternoon.

“Bruce-

Call me right away before you go on tonight.

-Giselle.”

Great.

It was going to be one of those nights.  And my evening had been looking so promising.  She doesn’t normally work weekends, so, this must be ( Read more... )

Elemental Treasure

That Queen Bitch labled him a Pirate.  He who served the king with honor, who scoured the known continents and braved the unknown to assuage her petty and salacious appetites.  He who gave his dying breath to safeguard the people of this land, a land that never accepted him within its folds, that which banished him to the sea.  ( Read more... )

The Tragic Hero

I was 19 when I encountered him the first time.  The details linger through the haze of a wild night’s bad dream ( Read more... )