The little people were not welcome. But they came. They sat in the rocks of the Arnie’s wall, trilling and ducking into the gaps between the rocks whenever Arnie opened the door or came around the corner of his house. They had turned the gaps in the rocks into doorways to their homes. They ate … Continue reading Arnie’s Wall
Maria Joseph and the Hills Like. . . .
Del Darlson leaned on his shovel and watched the muddied water burble across the dry alfalfa field. What it murmured he could not say, but he heard the unmistakable laughter of a certain young woman. Above him the clouds unraveled and reraveled the shape of her face, her long slender arms, an angle of her … Continue reading Maria Joseph and the Hills Like. . . .
Of All the Ways
Of all the ways to open— blackbird on post—oke-n-leedr red winging away
How Loud Does a Thirty-Two Finned Fish Whistle Blow?
How and why and when Jonas Ammitian caught the biggest rainbow trout in the world is in part because of the man he met in a bar in West Bench, Montana, but mostly because of the kerfuffle being made of his life at the time. Jonas was not even a fisherman. He was a plain, salt … Continue reading How Loud Does a Thirty-Two Finned Fish Whistle Blow?
After Forty-Five Groovin’ Years Ferni Diswalter Heads for San Francisco
The song of Ferni Diswalter’s life was like a vinyl 78 rpm record with a scratch across it. It went round and round on the turntable and kept playing the same small snatch of song over and over again. As you might expect, the snatch of lyric for Ferni’s life was from the hippie song … Continue reading After Forty-Five Groovin’ Years Ferni Diswalter Heads for San Francisco
Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44399/pied-beauty "Pied Beauty" first comes to mind when one hears 'dapple'. The other thing that comes to mind is the Appaloosa pony, which may make a poem sometime, but first things first. One does not need to love or even know or even think God to love Hopkins. Nor if a believer, one does not … Continue reading Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins
The True Story of an Almost Bad Man
Scene 1: barroom, Virginia City, Montana 1864 1st. He’s been told to quiet his sips, but Slade’s ears hear advice through whiskey neat. 2nd. And these are not pleasant times for incautious men; the rabble, that tool of righteous or not, is roused and dangles rope from barn beams and dances a glee while fuller … Continue reading The True Story of an Almost Bad Man
A Man is a Measly Thing
Breed came into the country with nothing. The horse he rode in on he possessed but did not own. It was said that the shirt he wore he got off a dead man after a fight in Denver or St. Louis or California. There were many men who knew of the fight, knew witnesses or … Continue reading A Man is a Measly Thing
Even In Darkness
The link below resurrects the writelee.com post most appreciated by the readers. Even In Darkness
Waiting for Fireworks at Antietam National Battlefield
The orchestra begins “O, say can you see,” and in the dusk those boys rise again from the tree line and form in rows sung into them with “Mine eyes have seen the glory.” Ranks waver and writhe like banners over rise and hollow. And boys begin to fall. Gaps appear and close, a fatal … Continue reading Waiting for Fireworks at Antietam National Battlefield
