Author Archives: sputterpub

Avicide

Posted on October 23, 2017 by sputterpub

At half past nine this morning, as I sat beside my window, reading news and clues to puzzles, I was startled by the flat concussion of a missile off its cruise: a sparrow struck the pane and fell on deck. … Continue reading →

Posted in Critters, Poetry | Leave a comment

Surprise Ending

Posted on October 20, 2017 by sputterpub

Accustomed as I am to be shut up whenever I’m in Mom’s vicinity, as much as I’m determined to put up with disregard for my veracity and memory (and cause she set the tone at home, my dad and brothers … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging, Poetry | Leave a comment

The Reason Not

Posted on October 19, 2017 by sputterpub

I could have set the cheesecake to defrost at 8 p.m. and tasted it by 9: 15, but that would mean I would have lost the benefit of buffering its fine- milled carbohydrate with protective fat. A cheesecake’s best preceded … Continue reading →

Posted in Behavior Modification, Food, Health, Poetry | Leave a comment

Smoke

Posted on October 18, 2017 by sputterpub

Prepared for atom bombs when we were 8, we ducked and covered as the school ran drills. And then the teachers tried to educate our class till we developed earthquake skills. So California kids were taught to dread a cold … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Weather | Leave a comment

Cornucopia

Posted on October 17, 2017 by sputterpub

It isn’t fair how fortunate I am. I haven’t great accomplishments or wealth. A member of a loved and loving fam- ily, enjoying more of elder health than all my nuts and exercise deserve, abiding in a friendly neighborhood, in … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging, Poetry | Leave a comment

Pop Beads

Posted on October 16, 2017 by sputterpub

Delightful weather summoned me outside again, though I’d acquired what I’d need for now, tonight, tomorrow. I could bide within, but sun and wafting breeze decreed that I inhale the local air and tread upon the cracked concrete. I thought … Continue reading →

Posted in Neighborhood, Poetry, Weather | Leave a comment

Second Half

Posted on October 13, 2017 by sputterpub

My parents didn’t seem to get along, when I was young and watching them at first. Their differences were daily loud, but strong inhibitors annealed them so they cursed in mumbles and apologized for bed. They stuck together, struck agreement, … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Leave a comment

Disadental

Posted on October 12, 2017 by sputterpub

She lately hates her teeth, and can’t abide the image that her photograph arrests. Her pose before a mirror shows the side that she prefers; in shop-glass, face and chest don’t look too bad, but cameras always still her face … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging, Poetry | Leave a comment

Ears

Posted on October 11, 2017 by sputterpub

Del is an active eavesdropper. That’s not to say she kneels at keyholes or holds glasses up to walls (although she did that once, in a Chicago hotel with her husband, to try to decipher what the couple next door … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Neighborhood | Leave a comment

Fretful

Posted on October 10, 2017 by sputterpub

My mother is a worrier. She finds a dozen ills to fret about a week, detecting dreadful symptoms of all kinds, for they can’t hide as well as she will seek. And lately she is warning me, with stern advice … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Leave a comment