hummingbird song #haiku
bird of paradise blurring green in mid-air hang ruby-throated whir Murmuration
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Poems, stories, and reflections
Birdwatch . . . Leap of Faith
March passed, blurred gray with rain. The backyard trees, still winter stark, hung heavy with a dozen birds roosting in dark clumps. Turkey buzzards. I grabbed some binoculars; the birds’ shrunken heads were red, with small, hooked beaks. After a drizzle, the buzzards flapped their black-brown wings, shaking off the damp. Then they took off and […]
MoreZinsser on Writing Memoir Well: “Think Small”
Since his death on May 12, William Zinsser dominates my thoughts. Reading his book On Writing Well transformed my writing in college. Later works continued to teach. Zinsser dropped many great lines. This one rings true as I draft slice-of-life pieces: “be yourself, speak freely, and think small.” It appeared in the essay “How to Write a Memoir” (The American Scholar, Spring […]
MoreThe French Kiss, according to Mom
In 1994, my mom (known as Miss Bunny) and I launched on her first grand tour of France. Mom’s taste in period art took a downturn after the Impressionists. Miss Bunny was quite the critic when she studied The Kiss, as interpreted by three modern artists. Picasso Pedantic moi: The fluid rhythms of the woman’s ear […]
MoreMom: Wonder Woman without the Skimpy Suit
Peggy, my younger sister, wept bitterly on her first day of school. “Honey, don’t worry,” my mother reassured. “You’ll be home before you know it.” My sister cried louder. “You’ll love school. You’ll read and color.” “But you’re so old!” Peggy squalled, tears of shame on her face. Mom, her hair already turning fine silver by […]
MoreEarth Day & Diaper Daze
No new mom leads a pampered life. However, a new day dawned with disposable diapers. They dispatched the cotton-diaper E-yew toilet-dunking moment to limbo, despite a few environmental holdouts. Although Procter & Gamble debuted disposable diapers in 1961—just in time for my sister Peggy’s arrival—my mother spurned this new-fangled notion. In the brave new world […]
MoreThe Kitchen Shower
In response to The Daily Post prompt: “Ingredients”—what’s the magic ingredient in your kitchen you can’t do without? Easy! Love with a pinch of good advice. As a young woman, I resisted ritual. I didn’t care which university won which rivalry. Secular sin! I tramped around Europe instead of stepping out at a debutante ball. […]
MoreThank-You Notes—Just Do It
Never cross a Southern dowager. Period. Within hours of the delivery of my first wedding gift, Mom handed over an alphabetized recipe filing box replete with 3×5 index cards for documentation. “Just do it. Now. Not later.” That meant scrawling the name of the giver, the address, a clear description of the gift, and the […]
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