Pond life Take this pond, for example. Goldfish blow ellipses… you pause, breathe. The pond counts the beats: in for four, hold for seven. Lily pads float like Pac-men in a plant-based alternative to the game you wasted hours on as a kid. The pond...

      Thrift In the shadow of Drumadoon the pink bobble headed Thrift stitch the bones of basalt scree summer's wreath for the cold stone that once rose angry red hot columns pastry cut pressed into the science of my camera.     John G. Hall...

      A PELICAN IS DANCING ON THE PATIO And there is a disco very deep in the woods. The pelican is tapping out its rhythm and no one can quite name the tune even though it is right there on the tip of tongues. And the people that know about the disco...

      TOSCANINI In later life, he will profess to dislike it, this symphony from a besieged city, this masterwork of human resilience its score smuggled to the States on microfiche, spy-story tradecraft the order of the day. Still, it is his the...

      Waking Memory Whether the documents, separated by type, format and function are easily accessed depends on the amount and the quality of the oil applied to the filing cabinet. There are nights when the metal doesn't glide, nights when the rollers...

      Action Man When he was a kid, he crucified Action Man He enjoyed that the rubber hands submitted perfectly to the hammer, nails passing easily into the wooden cross. As Action Man hung in the garden he reflected upon how unhelpful the trappings of...

      Freight Train For Elizabeth Cotten (1893 -1987) American blues and folk musician, singer, and songwriter. At a gas station in Malta, Angelo fingerpicks that song as the boys eat ricotta pastizzi and Ruth restrings her banjo and Romey plays at...

      The Sorry Letter I’m nine years old & it’s 6pm & I’ve been sent to my room. I open a new pack of felt tips & grab some Victoria Plum paper. It’s time for The Sorry Letter. I want to be in the laughing living room, watching Knight Rider...

      Sephardi Legend When Susona ben Susòn betrayed her father did she beg for her head to be severed from her body and nailed to the door or did she hide in the cloisters of a convent an orphaned Conversa enduring her days in penitent contemplation or...