It’s a matter of beans, says Rosie, 79, legally blind, her fingers dancing across a Bible in braille, when a reporter asks her about

She lives by a lake. After a heavy snow she looks out the window and sees black swans in a long, straight line

Never speak ill of the dead, his father always said, and his father was a pastor who preached from the pulpit. That’s why whenever

Black flag on the lawn falls in pieces from the sky. Starlings in command. Donal Mahoney

In a life with many valleys and a few mountaintops Alvin has met many people he thought were normal and others he thought not.

I have an old friend who was told some time ago he had six months to live. We live far apart now and he told me about this in an email shortly after the doctor told him. The six months ...

Mrs. O’Malley from across the alley has another small job for my father to do which makes my mother

Forget the fall equinox. Fall arrives when all the moths that dance on summer nights around the porch light disappear when the first cold dawn appears.

Six months ago an old black couple moved into an old brick house on a block of old white people. A dither erupted over the fences

During the day there might be three cars parked at different places anywhere on the block. But at midnight there isn’t

You have to be married at least 30 years to know what your wife is thinking before she says it aloud. More than 40 years to know

The ones we didn’t abort we’re starting to euthanize so no worries there. It’s the ones in the middle still walking around

Early evening traffic’s rather heavy. Autos armadillo home along the Outer Drive as out of mouths of buildings

What if after Browne has gone one of us discovers who Browne was… leads the rally to his room before the maid has time to broom the web… retrieve from underneath the bed